Crown Royal

After the police
and ambulance came,
a brown haired lady
in a sedan told me
pack some things
you might need.
I stuffed as many legos as I could
into two crown royal bags.
On the drive to my uncle’s
rubbing my fingers
over the edges of my bricks,
softened by the velvet bags.
Purple in the dark.
I try to count the gold
stitches with my
hands as the wheels
over the road
whisper me to sleep. Later
my uncle lifts me
into his plump arms.
I startle and grip those
golden drawstrings
as if they are the only way
back home.

Chandra Alderman splits her time between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Canton, Ohio. Her photography has appeared on book covers by Night Ballet Press and Crisis Chronicles Press and online at The Octopus Review, The City Poetry, Thirteen Myna Birds and Trailer Park Quarterly. Her writing has appeared in Trailer Park Quarterly, Live Nude Poems, Red Flag Poetry and Uppagus.