perfection isn’t stable

as though ascending in an elevator
enormous white of Kleenex floating cubes
rectangles of it kitchen counters bedside table trays
bureaus dresser tops her
pockets airy stuffed of blouse and pants jackets pjs coats & vests

piled four pillows high
steep hill of feathers
mauve sighs between
a thin red satin ribbon sewn
nightly toppling

folding her boxy blue&white stripped
embroidered w/ tiny cobalt palm trees swaying
long after she wore his black t-shirts to bed
her seersucker pants faded cowboy shirt snap buttons
ribbing on the cuffs kept

yellow doorway trapezoid
“Who is that boy,” she queried
puffs of smoking pigment rising spread
a geography of colored liquid
through his burning clothes