pattern-making ended

Pattern-Making Ended

Spells of manic loquaciousness, followed by days of silence

having rested here, for a minute or so, to collect a good burst of sobs,

expect you'll want to stay until the last dog dies.

The fact is all we need care for here; and the fact is

the nurse had looked up from her desk in a lobby cleanly bright, and

the two old crones, chiming in together, began pouring out

grief and isolation, and probably drugged to the gills,

one moment’s glimpse of a boy, in the midst of gunpowder smoke

in the parking lot of Shop 'n Save, because they needed milk and

an idle thing to do so much, by the utterance of a few brief words,

made them do push-ups each morning,

and I can make that a job that two of you,

with the pale remnants of a brown stain,

sat down with a determination to do,

as though they were a couple, too.