My mother is like this thing

Always right behind me with a massive haircut

Or floating above my bedroom

In the night with the barking dogs

There is a text message from her that says:

“do u need $$??”

There is a pair of her shoes—

Heels—in my closet

Sometimes when I walk by

I hear them breathe

I am afraid of reincarnation

When my mother dies

Will she come back to watch me

She could be a roach

Eating scum in the bottom of my bathtub

Or a website where I look at porn

And what of her house

The grass in the yard growing forever

Until it consumes the house and burps

Dead grass and engorged bugs gush from my eyes

In a picture on the white wall

My brother calls me and asks how she is

I am annoyed because I was in the zone

Writing a poem about

My mother