She has other plans. “Be careful,” she says, “an egg
must be taken good care of when it comes to you
like this from maybe heaven.” I think it’s a duck.

“If we have a turtle we’ll name him Michael,
or Michelle if it’s a she,” she says.

in the afternoon we
would nap in rooms of antique
jars and lamps and needlepointed chairs

she tapes muslin to the paneglass
sliding door with the northern exposure
over drawings to be transferred

Fats Domino’s parents each
wear a gold ring—each,
the woman, the man. A slice of hard moon

he has read forty books in three hours,
including a dozen popular novels
and a difficult treatise on the bone structure of birds

Something wonderful has happened
The city which surrounds this house
has vanished

Faces bob across the window
like TV with the sound off

We are able to erase the smoke
because of our ability to predict the future
as it were

I take meticulous care in noticing the ground
under my feet
as i walk slowly