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41 blAck humors By all accounts, which means my mother’s, My father’s mother was flat-out mad, Dressing him in Little Lord Fauntleroy suits Velvet elbows, lace at neck and cuffs. Her eyes alight with something I can’t quite make out My mother tells me my father’s mom Made him play the piano Each morning, every night And when he refused, He did it One ankle chained to the piano’s leg. Then, my mother says, His brother fetched him from class When he was thirteen, ashamed When his teacher called him out to the hall, And he looked up at his Twenty-five year old brother, Asked what do you want? And his brother said Dad shot mom then shot himself, And you’ll go To boarding school Because I can’t take you. My father told my mother This story only once, She tells me, played piano In front of her only once 42 Shoulders shaking, tears but no sobs Flat-out crazy because that side of the family Has just got bad genes And every last one of them’s in you. ...

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