Totem
Translated By Nora Brooks Blakely
The young man says, “Alan can
do anything he wants”
“Not fly,” I say
The young man returns
a puzzled look
*
Alan has already crushed
the milk carton
with his heel
*
In a quiet garden, far from here and in a world
built with sentences from a good book,
Alan has left the runway and grazed
a pantleg on the garden wall