crappy birthday to you

I started with happy

but Dorell commandeered

the song to crappy

lying in bed, singing

into my phone

to my sister

to her laughter

after our exhausted mother

passed out

hit her forehead

on the vanity in the small bathroom

off the kitchen—

goose egg

bruised eye socket

no fracture, the doc said—

a slightly better gift

than Al’s heart attack

last time

for Kimmi