A Vignette

Two black people were shouting, jolly
in the street. A white man came outside
asking questions, worried there was a fight.

The two black people exchanged a look. One said, "No.
We just talkin'. Everything's alright."

Without regret

Distrustful of such happiness, I thought
to break a window out of our small room and soon
had bloodied both my arms, had cut and caught
my wrists on shards, sharp shrapnel of a ruin-
ation I would try --- did try, and failed to fly or flee. Then you,
you, painstaking, reframed each single pane and turned
and asked me how the light looked then, and left
me still a moment, looking at the sky. My arms both burned
when you took me into yours. (I felt your heft.)
You showed me where the door had always been
and offered to undo the locks, unpry
the hinges that we two had closed together, painted over, sealed.
A brief whiteness passed the window: I turned to you.
Other things have yet to make me stay
like well-marked exits do.

A room with no egress---

or egrets either. An exitless,
regretless room where we regrew, reknew
uncertain innocence together: then ever
gregarious anew,
we both expressed unprepossess
ing love, unpressed. And who
could have guessed that we-with-no-egress, we two
still could be (with all we knew!) egregious
ly without distress---and also with
out egrets.

Still our arms link: A Perfect Plagiarism #2

Perfectly plagiarized from Sappho's "And their feet move"

Still, our arms link

fiercely, as freckled

arms of younger boys

linked then against the

current of time, parting

a circle in the strong

white-flowing water

Coming Down the Stairs: A Perfect Plagiarism #1

Perfectly plagiarized from "Walking Beside a Creek" by Ted Kooser

Coming down the stairs

at daybreak, the still house

filling with light,

you can feel the great joy

of the rooms, their skirts

flung out like dancing girls,

the sunlight streaming

through their wide, white aprons.

vice versa

Casting swine before pearls is also mistaken:

for all their shine,

pearls have no use for bacon.

Something Everyone Should Know How To Do

First you must free your left shoulder from the left strap of your knapsack. It works best to twitch your arm forward suddenly, shrugging inward so that the strap slips down your arm. Slide your left arm out of the knapsack's left strap. Then, grasp the right strap of the knapsack with your right hand, and swing the knapsack forward. Pass what was the right strap into your left hand, and slide your right arm into what was the left strap. You may slide your left arm into what was the right strap as well, if you wish. The aim is to execute these steps as one fluid, continuous movement.

Now your knapsack will be on "backwards." You will be carrying it in the front. Your profile will be that of a pregnant woman (though how pregnant a woman you will appear to be in profile depends on how much you are keeping in your knapsack!). Now you may add to, remove, or rearrange the contents of your knapsack with ease, without having to stop, or find a surface on which to rest your knapsack while doing so. You may remain standing while adding to, removing, or rearranging the contents of your knapsack, or, with a little practice, even continue walking!