--- care package #3 ---

a package abandoned on
your stairs intended
to comfort sears
your mind you say
leper! pariah! errand!
even meals on wheels
comes to the door
where you sit on the other side
with the athletes the journal and
ah the fur
waiting up until four A.M.
for your
old cat friend
to casually work the door cracked open
untouched she moves up
to share the foot
of your big summer bed
beside the little black dog who howled
mournful tentative encouraged by
your joining in
singing to no one out
there the crumpled bag of drinks
and macaroni sits still untouched
but by the moonlight
in the front room where you
cleaned and picked music
disembodied meditative even
hopeful hanging since noon
by that same old thread
in your artificially cooled air
desk piled high with dusty
dharma