“They always keep a few black bears around,
but safely out of sight, thus out of mind,”
McCool yells, paddling in. “River’s not cold!”
The guild that keeps the Hollow hollowed out
is well paid, has a health plan and such like.
Today: Happy Hollow t-shirts on sale!
The extra smalls. And bumper stickers, too.
The triplets like the way the sculpted ice
hinders the north wind while the sun’s still bright.
Time before this they had a sale on stripes.
Panic buying set in. Pants set on fire.
Then—just in time—the colossi were realigned.
But lots of stuff here’s not allowed to change—
e.g., “Froghopper” oil: squeezed from right whales.
Night always brings in more reassuring shapes,
triangles, parallelograms, rhomboids…
Platonic forms outlined in tiny lights
not suffered to burn out, still less to die.
Rank amateurs, aiming their telescopes
at Jupiter, show Galilean moons
free to “seniors.” Discounts you earn today,
at the first showing, can be reapplied
on your next birthday, if you’re still a child.
Even the hardened atheists love this place.
*For Phoebe, on her third birthday*
XII.31.2013