may the little coffee cup 
be blown over 
a cheap china pattern 
blue bulbs 

blooms on white 

a single cereal bowl 
from this set disperses 

and appears 
in apartment cabinets 
all over the city 

briefly indignant 
to find it here too 
that what I raised 
to my mouth 
and sucked from
has escaped the memory

of a kitchen table 

around the corner at sunset 
a baby in a red suit 
is held strongly under an arm 

quietly I let out the wish 
that we all feel strong enough 
some day to hold a baby like this 

in the crook of one’s arm 
legs dangling 

a mother moves 
with a strangeness 
a catch-between 
neck arches 
out of collarbones
under little black straps 
and now she has to say 
you look like spiderman! 
while also 

bobbing her short hair 
from side to side 

return from buying meat 
with a story of a passing car:
horn blowing in continuous rhythm
wipers flicking on and off 
and it was not raining 

Do you think that driver 
is having a stroke? posed 
to another man at the bus stop
No he replies, 
that’s an electrical problem

let me become the man 
who is sure of the distinction 

a sudden ache 
to make a map 

or even just look at one– 
try the hurricane’s route 
on the government website 

predicted to snake up the Atlantic
and become a storm 
by the time it hits Maine 

the shape of its path 

an expanding tube