Paternity Tests on the Maury Povich Show by Adriana DiGennaro

Bottle-blonde Cinnamon is terribly fat and has
two kids named Jerika and Jestein.
No one knows who their father is: her husband Donnie,
a thin, satanic-looking man
with sandy hair and a long pointy chin,
or his brother Tim,
a thinner, more satanic-looking Donnie.

At Maury's prompt,
Tim speaks of how he'd feel if indeed he'd fathered
the children.
"I'd feel bad," he says. "He ain't known I slept with her
till now."
I wanted him to say "irrevocable damage," "undeniably,"
words to convey emotion, thought
and as Cinnamon spoke about sleeping with her brother in law,
I wanted someone in the audience
to say "the impropriety of that is immeasurable."

Maury asks the audience if they think Tim is the father.
"Look at they eyes, look at they nose,"
says a black woman comparing the photographs.
"He got to be the daddy."

I glance over at the TV after the results come in.
I see an outraged Donnie restraining a red-faced Cinnamon,
a picture of Jerika and Jestein, offspring

of a "dumb cheatin' bitch",
all televised for the entertainment
of less-depraved souls
alone on weekday mornings.