What We Have

Like nothing else in Tennessee. -Wallace Stevens

I started collecting the teeth
of my children long ago
but should have labeled them.
Each of their baby hats
and my own.
Fatima's was sewn
by the Jewish midwife
who delivered her
and still has cord blood on it.
Mine is black velveteen
and one could call it
a buggy bonnet.
DNA evidence is all
over the place.
We began to collect
empty mason jars two years ago
and two collector's plates
that are very fine,
one with hummingbirds
and the other has some cats
on it because we cannot
have cats in our home
because the dog
would eat them.
He just loves to eat cats.
It's all he thinks about
and when he dreams,
he runs and growls.
This is the runaway house
and we can't have
hummingbirds either.

For the Snowman of Sleepy Hollow

Try working for a change
and slipping it in
between bites and smokes
"woman as art object"
for instance
you see things quicker
when you try
to buy insurance
for a whole family
retirement
feed the dog
Bake a disingenuous
pie for the hubby
who originates
from a village
in a part of the world
not many people know
about. Say:
three or four kilometers
from there.
Then they know where it is.
Other than the L places
in the God tapped me
on the shoulder poem
when I said:

JFK
KKIA
LAX

Try doing it
on a wing and a prayer
get a job
and you see things
faster and try
to remember
that old addage.
My Dog Has Fleas
or now is the time
for all good men
to come to the aid
of their country.
She was a typist
for a while, knew
shorthand. My mom
worked as a cook
on ranches in the Old West.
It is old now.
Been through alot.
She's up there
in the VA cemetery
next to my dad.
Oh...tuberculosis.
She'd just love
the idea that I work
with the tubercular.
And go out in the back alley
to say to myself:
The Industrial Department
of the Metropolitan Life
Insurance Company.