He wanted to tell her the weekend idea was ‘neat,’
But he kept hearing tome If repeat the word ‘funny.’

Kenneth noticed a man staring at breasts,
the way he, Kenneth, might look at an ass.
Kenneth felt a solidarity of need.

What follows me has found me,
here, in my own house.

They rise up so beautifully some nights,
opening like a bright fan of pain—
and what is left of her voice is a darkness

I love the way the self-appointed save us.
I love how love enables all those good-

You will come out of me, you know, then.
The years of hovering around you, I hope
benignly, afraid that you will learn my fear,

How she loved that passage, even though one of “them”
had written it. But James was different: He could see
how women think—and how most men aren’t able to.

The buildings stand, with all intention changed
from what designed and built them—killer ants,
their Gallic genes resembling old blueprints,

Cast out from work's absorbing converse
         I watch as men and women
         hurry toward home, each other,