someone's dead and we're all sad about it
but we forget things, you know, we move
apartments and adopt new pets.

like the onetime, your dog bites the head off a turtle
and you don't hate the dog for it.

we went to school
for this kind of thing. we went to school
for so long we forgot where we went

before that & we don't sell directions on walking
backwards or through one another--

we made directions
on how to get to the moon, if you believe that,

do you believe that? you heard it
said in a classroom, maybe. you learned the year
in a song, maybe? you got sick

a few times & you stayed home...
did they let you eat soup in the big bed?

did you watch the daytime soaps?

you weren't sick a few times & you still stayed home?
did they let you eat soup
in the big bed, then?...or did they know and make you wash the dishes?

when no one was home would you break eggs
over the sink and run
the yoke between your fingers,

until it broke?
did you think of slug puddles?
mucus?...
or where you would put the shells?