The call came, you waited every night, every day, and then it came, something from an alien ship guided by a million doll eyes

What are you doing, she says, oh, nothing, just thinking about the power of trances, how they might fire cities, or help baby birds push out of egg shells

Are you still inconsolable

Yes

She goes back into the bedroom

In the floor is a tiny hole and when you bend over there is a doctor inside giving a seminar, he says, even though the heart stops, the brain knows you are dead and sends signals to the lungs to keep moving, and it is true, you are still breathing, but abbreviated, hyphenated for all the official documents

On the grass, a ball rolled into the night, and the call did not register that, no, it did not speak of the other children or how you…