And like a
Pup waiting beneath
The dinner table
Or the feral
Cat yowling outside
The screen door
I’ve become an
Acceptor of scraps
Tossed as an
Afterthought or perhaps
A pedantic gesture
Or maybe even
A lure keeping
Me enticed until
You catch me
Measure me and
Throw me back
I finally found
The heart that
I lost it’s
Beating right beneath
Yours under my
Hand on your
Chest thumping there
Oh why oh
Why when things
Go bad every
Song makes me
Cry
Is that perhaps
Our natural state
Just this side
Of crying when
A song pushes
Us over edge
You’ve been silent
And I recall
That’s how every
Other one ended
Am I now
Going down the
Same slide with
No one to
Catch me at
The lonely bottom
I spied two
Birds on a
Wire outside my
Door dancing they
Were a silly
Cadence to me
Bobbing and squeaking
But making progress
For off they
Flew into trees
Like people at
Bar time cozying
Up to dates
The first chance
Of feeling today’s
Sun belongs to
The tallest of
Tall trees here
Just now their
Canopies are squinting
In early day
These tall trees
Stand head and
Shoulders above others
Like gangly taller-than-mates
Eighth graders in
Class photos the
Dawn sun moves
Across these trees
Like a slow
Yellow caterpillar across
The leaves of
It’s lunch eventually
Scorching everything with
The noon heat
HARLAN DIDRICKSON 