When you’ve been alone all day—
even though you’ve talked to a neighbor
a mail man, a homeless man, a friend on
the phone:
There’s this fly. It started
the morning with a buzz.
Is it inside? out? It’s in.
Damn, should I kill it dead?
Damn it dead, should I kill it, but with what?
Upstairs I go to the computer.
Back down again.
In the living room I sit on a big
leather chair.
Around it goes, passes me
By. Dives straight behind the clothes
on the rack
by the front door.
Jump up I, and run slinging open it
To whoosh IT out—but no luck for me
no luck for it.
Hidden, no FLY zone. Gone. Done.
Out I go to buy food for dinner
Cook and chop. Chop to cook.
Saffron and basil. Chicken in chunks.
Down I sit at the dining room table
look up to see…
my friend fly—
Emily Dickinson and I.