Where Wires Tangle

Behind the bookcase is a balled up tissue

A safety pin and the fur of a now dead cat

(I don’t think I will clone him)

There is a price tag for parts

And a key to my old apartment (hello!)

This is the birthplace of sneezes

The depository of receipts

Condom wrappers (yippee)

And coins coins coins coins

Here is a ticket stub from the ball game

(Row HH) a quote from a roofer

The business card of a dwarf

(My father had me shake his hand

At the side show) three bobby pins

A toothpick, a suit button

Here lies a pen with a lady

(She’s naked upside down)

Mold resembling a fruit peel

A postcard of the Rockies

(How’s the weather down there?)

An aspirin and a root beer barrel

And a matchbook with a number

(I did not write the name)

To start a fire

“Where Wires Tangle” is from Backwards Days (Penguin, October 2007).