So She’s mad because He drinks too much

well not just that he drinks too much but

that he lies about it. When she asked

what happened to the tequila in the fridge

he stood there looking for it

like he didn’t know exactly where it went.

This is how Haley catches me up

anyway since I dozed off watching.

We’re at either end of the couch

we bought together years ago. It’s linen

or is it a mossy corduroy. Hang on a second

I say rubbing my eyes but my wife she’s

gone has been replaced

by the view of the woods outside

the house that I grew up in

from the upstairs bedroom window.

Something moves or there is

the suggestion of something moving

behind the white oaks. Where’ve you been

my mother asks through the mouth

of the labrador drooling on my comforter.

I was in the night evading capture.

I was on the lam I was accused they

said I vandalized the church marquee

rearranged the letters to read

HELL AIN’T REAL

which doesn’t sound like me

because I know otherwise. A hand

I recognize as mine grips a doorhandle

and pops a refrigerator open. I reach

inside and grip the doorhandle pop the

gunmetal fridge door open. I reach inside

for the bottle in the fridge pop

empty. It was here. The bottle in

the fridge I reach for

gone only doorhandles more

doorhandles more gun-

metal fridge doors opening. More bright white

rooms empty

bright and empty rooms. (Pop.) An engine

turns over and a bowling ball return

ejects a summer squash.

Smooth and oblong and the half

green of an oxidizing cup. HEY

it says to me (the squash does). Are you

listening? Have you heard a single thing I said?