dream. 

a 3 year old boy with the body of a baby and the vocabulary of a third grader was on the bar in a shitty, shiny watering hole, beaten by his mother, who stood at the door in stilettos, asking men to smell the perfume she'd applied. her son lay like a shallow breath and she bent her body over, letting men touch the tips of their noses to the nape of her neck. she wore a backless white silk halter and had a pixie haircut. 

i tried to soothe the boy, ice his bruises and wet his burns, and carried him outside when he told me he couldn't breathe...and while his lung collapsed and i screamed for someone to call an ambulance, the party inside went on. he died in my arms.