When my mind plucked me
abruptly from earth and gently
laid me in abstraction, time went and saw
the world. Life without
a year, a strangely natural thing.
I woke taller, didn’t notice
then, my shadow
interrupted light
just a bit longer, growing
into the pavement.
It was a simple thing. A left turn gone afield.
I made it simpler.
I put on my father’s shirt
and felt it explode—