Like any good strategist, you keep an ethical
distance, stepping over milkweed and turning on
the radio. It’s hard to tell when you’re approaching—
everyone wears an orange vest over her coat.
Cooking without speaking, I feel like an actress
playing a wife—soft cheese with honey, pickled
cabbage, pale tomatoes from the roadside store.
The pond is frozen and the snow has no content.
I understand the animal only if it’s packed
in Styrofoam and thawing on the kitchen counter.
Even then, some parts are too much for me.
The bulbous head of the hydrangea hits the window.
You come in. We eat marrow and cartilage.
I wanted the snow to be like snow from television—
fat and legible. How rarely I feel I am anywhere.
I hate the animal when it looks like what it is.