Two Poems


Zygote


When a woman reads an entire novel in her lap
in one night and the first person she sees
upon waking is a man.
When a bird shits into a swimming pool
while a man and woman are swimming.
When a woman breaks three glasses
in three days and on the third day calls her mother
but her mother doesn't answer
because she was in a car accident.
When a man sends a woman a pen
through the mail, but the woman
never opens the package because she is out
purchasing a pregnancy test.
After a woman follows a man to a big city
and there lives with him in a box the woman
must eventually get a good job.
When a mommy and daddy love each other
very much.
When another woman asks a woman
about the kind of granola she recommended last Tuesday
and this makes the second woman cry
because the first woman is trying so hard to ask something stupid and normal.
When a woman is very smart.
When a woman has asthma and wins third place
for sports and knocks over a display of Teddy Grahams
and has never seen a movie more than once.
When three guitar strings break
during a performance. When four break, it is also true.
And also when five and six break,
and seven, eight & nine and it is just easier to say:
When more than three guitar strings break
during a performance.
When a woman is alone.

When a woman passes a chicken egg
on the street and then enters a building.