Closer

-

CLOSER



And just when you think you might

have drawn the card that lets you  

skip the dark square and stay

in the game till they close the box, 


it’s suddenly the friend of a friend

or the freshman when you were

a senior, an old teammate’s little sister, 


and you feel the stray dog 

whose attacks the next town over 

you've read about over coffee before

now snuffling at the crack  

under your door or around your feet

beneath the table, and while

he hasn’t yet bitten your children

you see more clearly now how

other people’s children are your children

to other people, how all that "oneness"

shit might have some kernels

of more than undigested corn in it.


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