When I woke from my afternoon nap, I wanted
to hold onto my dream, but in a matter of seconds
it had drifted away like a fine mist. Nothing
remained; oh, perhaps a green corner of cloth
pinched between my fingers, signifying what?
Think of the wars that had to be fought,
the bloodbaths,
the overthrowing of kings and kingdoms.
The loggers who cut the wood
in the forests of Romania,
and Lithuania and Latvia,
and in Lowndes, Alabama.
The highlight of every Christmas was you climbing
the attic staircase, like a memory to your childhood,
carrying down the brown leather case that held
the pearl-keyed Titano accordion.
Two bears and an owl walk into a bar—
the beginning of a joke, maybe,
or a dream.
Along the border of any governed region, there exists a value which must
satisfy its laws. This is a rule I learned for solving differential equations.