We began to meet there
On the mops.

The Ponte Vecchio was built
For butcher shops.
The river stitched with bridges

gul   any flower gul   a candle’s tongue

That day in winter: the rows
of shabby cages, stacked
like death-camp bunk beds,
in which tiger kittens gamboled,

Love, here we stand at the beginning
of our life together, and I find myself
thinking of a hot summer night

to say, “We are home, but, no, we are not here now.
    Please don’t leave us a message.”

the world is not an example of anything. My
mother's voice calls us to dinner, and we both
stand, my brother and I, faithful now

The trick to posing newlyweds… but everyone
knows how you must incline them
to lean imperceptibly toward the warm flesh

A plant grew quietly on the windowsill, and everybody
knew it was a good soldier and they nodded hello

Smoking a dart, I said.
I just met my first bird.