A GOOD THING

Today Martha explained how to prepare
Bing cherries for a group of six

or more guests. “First take a deep
blue bowl,” and from under

the counter she produced a bowl.
(In fact it was shallow, and green.)

“And then you drop the cherries in.”
And then she dropped the cherries in.

THAT ABANDONED EMBODIMENT OF THE ‘COME FLY WITH ME’ ERA OF JETSETTING

Today the architect visited. Oh, we drank
coffee and talked fondly about the days

when you could smoke on airplanes, he called it
Lighting up the skies. And now, even the terminals

are smoke free. We took our coffee on the patio
from stained mugs. And then he smashed the mugs.

When his exact hands pieced from the sherds a porcelain
sail on the blue of the blue table I thought, People age

like buildings, and the architect said, Not all of them.

(2004, dir. AndrÃƒ© TÃƒ©chinÃƒ©)

After thirty years of calling her
almost and letters nearly sent

the first time you see her
again you walk

into a glass wall.
Your nose is broken & literally

you’ve ruined your pants (merde!)
and then

here’s Deneuve, your long-married
& subsequently lost

first love flashing back in the slow
white glow of a dolly shot—

and her husband, the doctor,
checking your pulse.