More on St. Clare --

St. Claire and the Astronaut

she knows he’s stalking her
though he changes shape and size

she sees him behind her reflected in the glass
when she’s looking at the Christmas elves at Macy’s

at night, she hears his mechanical breathing
hum suck hum suck outside her apartment
     he always arrives around one

   once she leaned 
against the cold metal door
with its purple handprints       asked him
to buy her cream for her special scrambled
eggs in the morning      she uses them
to cure the widow upstairs of her arthritis
    and blue moods

the hum suck paused and then he clumped
away   Claire heard the heavy magnetized 
boots on the stairs going down

the next morning the cream was in her refrigerator

sometimes at night he forgets the door
comes right in through the walls   hovers
spread-eagled  over her bed  he whispers
say goodbye to gravity