Spectacle

On sad days we'd go

to the planetarium.

We'd put on that

helmet of stars 

and hardly anything 

falling could hurt us.

Habitat

The gods ran

back and forth

between 

our houses—

like those dogs

who pretend

no one

has fed them.

Why

Why, she keeps

asking, because

she is three

and still

believes

there are reasons.

Directive

Take me

to your leader,

I said —

so they’d know

how hollow 

it is 

to be followed.

Wax

A ball of wax

is the whole

ball of wax,

no matter

how small,

no matter

how soft

or hard,

or how 

many 

rooms 

it fills

or fails

to fill

with 

light.

Bridal

I didn’t want

a wedding—I 

wanted cake.

I didn’t

want cake

so much

as I wanted

those figurines

atop sweet tiers.

I didn’t want

the figurines, not

really. What I

wanted was

to be them—

hard and plastic,

machined

into being

with another,

as alive as

an ornament

can be,

on a sea

of buttercream,

someone taking 

a bite of me, 

someone thinking 

I might be real.

Contingency

In another

life, I’d

want this one.

In the Dark

We carried our spears 

as far as we could.

We thought they

could teach us

something—something

pointed and sharp.

Life is hard,

the spears said

to the dark, which 

listened, wishing 

their tips were stars.

Primer

Everything I need

to know I learned

in the ice age—

how cold cold

is, how 

lonely extinction.

Strategically Speaking

They said we

were human

shields—

they who

were human

spears.

Humanitarian

At last the first

trucks have been

let in. How nimble

the living are, how

quickly they shift

gears in their lories,

how many can

we fit in, one asks

another, speaking

of bodies where

people had been.