i think one day there will be a person who looks at me
and their heart cramps up like they’ve been writing my name too long,
too long, curling letters like burning letters
in backyard dirt patches like angels’ tacit polka dots,
the reddest button in the mason jar like lemonade at a wedding,
listening to breaths in sleep, making sure i don’t blow out the candle

once i had a panther outside my window and she cried,
she cried like a baby all night and i could hear her and once
there was a peacock outside my window and she cooed and one day
i will be dead and i hope you will be the one cooing
at the casket outside my window waiting
for the fire stairs to drop