TROUBLE IN PARADISE

Act 13.   Tinkerbell is dead, a crumpled

Kleenex by the sofa. Lost

boys and girls are playing indians and

pirates in the rec room,

brandishing their edges, really

bleeding. Fluorescent lighting. Each

totes a pack oozing the PCBs of his

and her sad histories, a sort

of Germany.

Back in Act 12, voice

put down its animals and has taken up

the telephone, paring down to buzz whine

click.

I’m not home right now.

So what?   I got your number

                                  into which

you will reduce, or else:

the original recorded message, something muttering

for chrissake

let there be dark.