let’s say your child is turning 8 and refuses
to tell the time so as a learning activity
you make a cake for her to ice with a clock face
and she pipes numbers in slippery trails of pink
squeezing the piping bag hard it is going to burst
and icing will ooze glossy and sticky and you
will not be able control how the hours will merge
to a shiny mass or how your child will cram
melting minutes in her face

come on get off the bus! let’s say you’re
pushing down the aisle behind the man
you love and on the pavement your child
is flowing out of her grandmother’s arms
toward you we’re back we told you we’ll
always come back and let’s say you both
in that moment do believe you will forever
hold a shape where she can pour herself
...