Skip to My Lou

Fly's in the buttermilk,
Shoo, fly, shoo 

blood tinged waking
fills up shadowed bins
old promises in
crackled sidewalks
pastel chalk
seeping into earth
swirling muted
forget-me-nots
visible
in stone crevices

Lost my partner,
What'll I do?

when we still believed

we could jump outside boxes

build towers with numbers

navigate our way

through ropes

Skip, skip, skip to my Lou

blindfolded girls

run in circles

trying to find a single statue

not bound with apron strings

their pretty dresses

torn to pieces

I'll get another one
Prettier than you

shame is clothed in white lace
and cries politely
into handkerchiefs
where
what we have left is
nothing 
in the shape
of everything

Skip to my Lou, my darlin'.