1. in your dream
you wrote
i salute your bravery
on scraps of paper
for phoebe and i
2. in my dream
someone held my fingertips under the light
and told me
one of my pinkie fingerprints
was missing
no topography lines
no whorls
no phenomenon of no-two-the-same
(like snowflakes)
(which, p.s. i think this n0-two-the-same concept
should have a name)
it was familiar
because it wasn’t the first time
i lost something like that
3. jane goodall
on science friday
amongst other things
tells 13 year old marissa
what her mom told her
if you really want something
and you work hard
and you never give up
if you never give up
you’ll find a way
and it’s not the words
but the voice
and the body that carries the voice
which is a monument
to 50 years of work
including
being admitted
to a phd program at cambridge university
without ever having received a bachelor’s degree
and upon her arrival
some scholars and scientists
criticized her for giving chimpanzees names
instead of numbers
4. the audible transference of hope
from a 50 year monument
to a thirteen year old girl
5. in 2002
jane goodall was honored by the united nations
as a ‘messenger of peace’
if that award was a poem in a gradschool workshop
it would be chastised
for being
too vague
or new agey
(what does united mean?
what constitutes a nation?
nobody in their smart gradschool mind
puts the word peace
in a poem
and expects it to stand alone.)
but
the fact that
there even exists
such an award
is more than poem enough for me
6. a display case
stuffed
with toy pianos
one of which
might be constructed
out of a cigar box
7. adrienne
refers to something she was reading
about gestalt
and how some relationships are nourishing
and some are toxic
and just because a relationship
is toxic
does not mean
either of the people are
8. kaya and i
and our avocado tomato lettuce toast sandwiches
at the kitchen table
discussing
our relationships
to fast food
detail collector 