for Cole Swensen

It was the ant on my arm and not
the older woman I was holding up
that made me giggle-the coincidence
of my mother's sister staring into
space while I was so intensely
focused on the field of weeds
my body hair had accidentally
invented for the small insect.
A simple breeze brought the subject
to its knees, and she looked up
Help me please! there was nothing
I could do, even in the lift
from where she'd gone
I already knew the other
was perfectly at home there.

29 June 2002