THE ANDROID IN THE BASEMENT

Incognito princess of her kind my father disowned
family to wed, marched for and stumbled with 
through ghetto teargas 
like the mists of Venus, my mother 

dropped a tentacled mass 
of ties in a suitcase and ended his world. He stared
like a truck had hit him. But I saw the wheels 
in his head spin. Out came the caresses

as if in the service of a greater justice.
He swore he knew how she felt
though she couldn’t decide
between shouting and weeping, helped him

hard to the door even as an equal 
and opposite moment of truth arrived 
in answer to the times she'd asked the air 
where it was all night and to wash 

its own damn dishes. Sent to get frozen peas
when I was small and not yet 
intricate, I’d hesitate on the stairs 
but seldom looked, crossing the street.