One of a million women on many buses to Pennsylvania,
I’m new meat. She’s a college senior. Alpha-stagger
assesses if this is a piece to be tossed or left—
if I can last the short-fast road between her paws.
She sets back the pack, brushes her curls
from her eyes. I believe my childhood cat
taught me how to receive her, how to welcome
after the previous smiles have failed.
I cannot take on her sorrow’s torch,
it withers bright beneath a roofless stare—
she wants me to stay.
My eyes travel Philly’s curbs,
enter the rust and tongueless Liberty Bell,
loop then double-constrict her wrists,
and we agree—bananas for safety.