I bought a new cat carrying case this afternoon, and I had to carry it all through New Jersey, New York and Queens. A really perverse part of me wanted to pretend I had an invisible cat. People kept peering into the case. I just managed to control the impulse to squeak in a baby voice to my imaginary cat “Mr. Quibbles” and stick my fingers through the wire to touch his transparent nose.

Hide and Seek

girls’ slips get caught on windowsills cheeks and elbows shine in the dim yard whispers carry all the way to the attic their scent (all lavender confusion) carries downwind they hide in plain sight under the front porch behind the rose bush in the apple tree they beg to be found bite their wet tongues in anticipation of the tickle the pinching they swoon from boredom sitting still dying lightening bugs fill their ponytails miniature spiders lodge in their hems inchworms coax shivers down their shoulders the sun slings low as they set their chins on folded arms and sigh