“My mother was in the hospital & everyone wanted to be my friend.

But I was busy making a list: good dog, bad citizen, short

skeleton, tall mocha. Typical Tuesday.

My mother was in the hospital & no one wanted to be her friend.

Everyone wanted to be soft cooing sympathies. Very reasonable

pigeons. No one had the time & our solution to it

was to buy shinier watches. We were enamored with

what our wrists could declare. My mother was in the hospital

& I didn’t want to be her friend. Typical son. Tall latte, short tale,

bad plot, great wifi in the atypical café. My mother was in the hospital

& she didn’t want to be her friend. She wanted to be the family

grocery list. Low-fat yogurt, firm tofu. She didn’t trust my father

to be it. You always forget something, she said, even when
I do the list for you. Even then.”