Indian gentleman elegant in his
overcoat arrives mid-morning
at the office tucked into a high
rise right off Wall Street, an
ashbreath from Ground Zero –
his presence sells “security,” thumbdrive
holding pictures of his daughter,
beloved community back home in
Virginia, glossy, up-to-date, backed up,
all behind the firewall, serene

inextricably linked to President Kennedy’s assassination
when the announcement came, she started to cry
while the rest of us stood and prayd Hail Mary’s
she had to be taken out of the classroom

– WHY –

she didn’t know him, was it just the shock?

her trolls had glitter in their earlobes

systems guy – smart, a software
“architect” and funny, fun to
work with – but most absorbing,
tidbits from his private life –
townhouse up on Jasmine Hill
his lovely fragile wife the murals
blue and purple on their walls
(did I imagine them?) and –
he had his stickstraight salt-
‘n-pepper hair permed regularly

girls coming to intake at
the clinic – shy embarrassed desperate
or otherwise concerned – confronted
with sunny senorita’s stunning smile
charisma covering her casual mistakes
and telephone tango in the middle
of their interview – exasperating but
radiant with Spanish charm, pride
from her father’s side, scorned
stability from her Mayan mother’s

examine her In Pieces
page from a book word from a
sentence an eyelash a thumbprint
fragmentary faceted such
is intimacy in small doses
a seed a droplet of essential
oil sealed in vessels of Seattle
stealth someday I will visit
open up the vial discover
yet more tiny realms

can erase original sin with her extraordinary
baptisms

coaxes even Eve to fling away her fig leaf

dissolves insoluble barriers with her caustic
psychic solvents

whispers hints to you in class that can
set your home on fire

maestra of impossible, the intimate
performance

this work bears her
fingerprints

of the tent – bivouac’d in
Cheticamp and Breton Acadian in
Maine Vermont Connecticut from there
hoteled in Rome, Madrid – restless
on her way to caravanserais
in Africa hoping for the scent
of thorny flowers traveling light
and armed with her relentless
questioning bringing news of
what is found there home