Newton’s First Law of Motion

There’s a photograph
of us hanging
in the kitchen—
Crisp denim shirt
hugging

his redwood
skin—Vanilla
birthday cake
with strawberry
filling—

I blow out
two .99 store
candles—A wish
that’ll never
come true—

A wish that begins
Please Please
Please
and ends
Stop Stop Stop—

I unwrap
his gift—Replica
of the plane
he rode
out of that divided country

where the woman
he loved
before he loved
my mother
remains buried

in a city
whose real name
only its exiled
children
employ—

Kingdom
of kapok trees—
Kingdom without kings—
I drag the plane’s motor
back

tightening
its internal spring
like particles
in a thermobaric
weapon—

Fuel-air bomb
sucking oxygen
from his lungs—
His five kids—
Abandoned—

Hunger
daring them
to devour each other—
I release it—
Unyielding

time—Domino effect—
An object in motion
stays in motion—
The past driving us
forward

at the same speed—
Same direction—
Unless acted upon
by an unbalanced
force—

The plane soars
across the table
into my mother’s lap—
It detonates—
She laughs—