and nervously smiles toward me in the crowded
grocery store. His cart full of delicate cookies
and bright red fruit. He doesn’t know that
I have already left this moment, even when
it is happening, I am as anonymous as the smooth purple city,
the brown hat squeezing the small head of a boy.
Everything up to now is a secret
with teeth and bones
trying to climb onto an old table
just to pull the switch on
my body, to light it up
like a yellow leaf.