Jennifer Patino

2 Poems: Little Brother & Little Brother, Gone

little brother,
keep dancing

little brother,
breathe

my wrath
drains crimson
down the bath

Flashes of lightning
illuminate you,
and I turn away
lest I cry.

I have learned to be glad
for the things I’ll
never understand

…blue lights
turn on
one by one…

what pain looks like
but only to those
who allow themselves to feel it

Whispering birds,
frail and sunken-eyed

What about
when the heart knocks back?

queen bee venom
courses through
my tiny veins

desert sun assaults us
in undulating flares