I sit on the edge of the swimming pool. A leaf
In the skeletal stage floats by. Then the caw of a crow
That could break a bone.
I am loved but feel alone.
I look for something above. An amputee
Has climbed the the rose-of-montana vine. No.
The tulip tree has been brutally pruned.
Oh. When I was young
I thought the branch had spoken
When I broke it over my knee and saw in it my own insides
All wet and golden.
But now these fragments are like frozen Vivaldi
Thrown down on the floor and shattered. I slide into the pool,
So cold I shiver. A dead wasp floats by,
Its head on a piece of leaf, its shadow on the pool bottom
Rimmed in silver.
Im so alone and yet Im loved.
And all the atoms nod in agreement,
And praise me softly like applauding gloves.

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