Near the Coast

by David Linebarger

Older now, few appointments.
Time beyond time, the sky.

The moon’s many colors,
Diana’s animals.
Seventeen hungry cats.

A four way stop,
fruit ripening, plucked.
DNA in your eyes, your hair.

On a street corner
centuries away,
a jade cicada
on a mannequin’s lips.

How inside each body
protected by glass
a fire alarm waits to be pulled.

How glass often breaks,
how someone might want
what anyone has.