Beginning:
coy smile / upturned face
rays of light dancing on a
naked wooden table
possibility flashing like
the jittery strobes of
an angry ambulance

Middle:
excitement pooling in
the fingers / the toes
and suddenly
halted like a line of
traffic stilled
by the moving wall of
a freight train
through two towns

even the ambulance
waits and wails
waits
waits

End:
one thousand
tiny black birds
sprayed
against a soft blue sky

(they have disappeared)

gone to somebody
else’s sky