Central Air

It’s undeniable, 

wherever you are is the center of the world

I’ve come to, to admire the distance 

between us.

-Pretend you’re married, your marriage is

falling apart.

In the courtyard of a one story school

you find a hundred dollar bill.                

-There was a plastic palm tree in the corner,

the television was turned off.

You’re boring, you said. Decades later

I read Boring Is the New Interesting.-

Before central air you were fortunate 

enough to have electricity, and put a plug

in a socket. A fan cooled the corner

where you sat reading Readers Digest.

– Turtles with orange shells wouldn’t bite,

Snappers with black jagged edged shells

would. Small green turtles in pet shops,

you took three home.  They swam

with tiny claws in a round plastic dish.

All you had to do was practically look at one

and it died.

-Youth is foolish.  He held you by 

the ankles as you upside down dangled 

over a banister, above a fight of stairs.

Instead of trying to pull you to safety

I laughed.