For Lucy, who called them "ghost houses."
Someone was always leaving
...
Such insignificance: a glance
at your record on the doctor's desk
or a letter not meant for you.
How could you have known? It's not true
...
You have read War and Peace.
Now here is Sister Carrie,
not up to Tolstoy; still
it will second the real world:
...
1992
1) I was born in a Free City, near the North Sea.
...
Jenny, your mind commands
kingdoms of black and white:
you shoulder the crow on your left,
the snowbird on your right;
...
The moon lies on the river
like a drop of oil.
The children come to the banks to be healed
of their wounds and bruises.
...
Our trees are aspens, but people
mistake them for birches;
they think of us as characters
in a Russian novel, Kitty and Levin
...
Sometimes, when the light strikes at odd angles
and pulls you back into childhood
...
This is not fantasy, this is our life.
We are the characters
who have invaded the moon,
...