141

And sometimes God leaves
a sleeping dog on your stoop

Sorry it got so cold out there-
just take him for a walk

He didn't notice the bombs that fell
even when no one wanted them to

140

We've sat politely in the living room
knees together, backs straight
staring at each other for thirty years or so

I watched your face drop
You watched my hair grow long
We've forgotten to wonder how old
the kids have grown

You finally got up for a glass of water
You'd never walked that way before
I didn't know you anymore

Not even when I turned my head
to see the half of the room
that you understand

139

I know that face well
Your mouth to the side
like when you were little
gripping your father's leg
drowning in a crowd of cocktail dresses

Bones cast shadows on your face
I don't remember your arms this thin
But the freckles are all the same
The cluster on your wrist

So tell me what you thought about
when you saw
the crack of light
in the afternoon

I forget sometimes that you were there
with me, next to puddles in the parking lot
when we finally got what we wanted
and didn't want it anymore.

138

You were never all that great, I guess
but you could put the bait on the hook,
and that was enough for me.

Oh, you don't change.
We just don't fish anymore.
When suddenly everyone could do something
and spoke about it at those work parties
to people who knew
they'd walk away soon to get a drink.

137

There was a drawer open
but I fell asleep anyway.
I didn't think I could do that

Now clothes stick out of the dresser,
and shoes guard the door,
but as long as it's all the same

Messy as my hair when I'm finally asleep.
I wonder how you look in the day

Let's skip to the part
when I haven't seen you in a while,
and we remember it all the same

136

The rest of the world I haven't seen
is not going to be enough
as long as the people
still walk in streets,
all the flat faces going by

I thought maybe we could all live
in the sky
wake up when the sun is gone
so we don't need to know
who's wrist we grabbed

I thought maybe I could live in the air
but when we got arrived, I'd already been up there

135

How average airplanes have become
They're not the first things
to fly, we say

Be lucky, be born
when nobody's looking
Then find your way out
of the woods, someday