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It’s a skull-shaped pot of wilted flowers on the porch waiting for the tide to rise, pick it up, and take it away to Dreamland, where it belongs.

"Would you like a receipt?" asked Travis. The customer didn't want a receipt, and she left with her iced latte right as the sun was setting outside of the shop window. It was nine o'clock, midsummer. Travis got ready to end his day.

The lights in each of the doll houses are off.

I, a giant, wander insignificant

Among the grains of sand.

When at last I reach the sea,

I let it take me, 

Dirt and grime and grease

Jerry looks out peacefully at his friend Marky drowning again. He’s in the water. The first time he was out there, it was when his mom got sick for good, and he stopped seeing his shrink.

Tonight, stars are falling,

Over Chicago, New England, Texas,

From angry east to angry west,

Dark cars: hearses that we don't call hearses

Roll silently towards lively, warm houses,

I went to work the day after they announced it. I stocked the shelves and listened to the radio from the speakers in the warehouse ceilings. Cars were piling up at the exits, trying to get out of town.