by the box kite bought at Walmart on his last afternoon, $5.99/
his hairbrush upturned on the bathroom counter/by
the dark he woke to, tree frogs
in undergrowth, the rusted shed with its lock shattered, what word/for
our hands fumbling in pure
daylight/by our tracks browning the carpet,
his Thai elephant missing a single ivory tusk/by what choral theater
allowed me to think/
portable home, a little immortality/
by Xanax from his bag of last possessions, clattered down steps
of the funeral home/by
relentless relief/he was gone, his nowhere pivot/
the crew swearing in soaked t-shirts, the flatbed
heaved away/
by his wallet perched on my washing machine back home