new sound:
(the sound of being circled; an O)
I am told I’d
walk
circles around the
office floor, the top
floor.
How I’d stop
occasionally mid-
step, pause, pause,
then move on again
for four months. I
was, is the word
happy?, when my
assignment was
discharged.
It
was a couple
of days before
Thanksgiving.
Then the facts
settled in.
Coco has
taken to
circling
me,
around
and around
while I’m sitting
in bed typing this.
Around and around
and around and around.
I couldn’t make out.
I couldn’t make out the
blurry gray and red???
figures in the back-
ground of the entire
triptych.
I squinted;
I looked askew. I’m
sure I stood there a
very long time trying.
Until a gentleman
with a top hat stood
beside me as if out
of nowhere and
whispered into my
right ear.
They’re
the carcasses
of pigeons.
