When he reaches his thick arm
towards you, you might not realize

where he is aiming. You might not understand
until he seizes you, until you’ve already caught

his dirty fat hand, and spun the both of you so that now
you face each other.

“Call this depression on a midnight chime where the dog comes out of a clock and yelps 12 times to compete with my own.”

Although they say smoke merely makes bees drunk,
I’m worried what might happen to the Notre Dame hives if they lose their
queen.

say elevator. say sidewalk.

say water different than
your mother says it,

cradling the edges inside the bowl
of your mouth.

Soaping up hairy legs is like bathing horses. With my fingers on the foamy plush of my calf, I remember my grandfather Alberto’s horses."

The other day, the tyrant said, hate has
no place in our country, while naming the
wrong city where the tragedy occurred,
and I thought: Is man no more than this.