how that little train runs on
Good & Plenty candies. Do you know?
Sometimes I ask my philodendron
things like this, and it answers
by making new little shoots that
wind around the curtain rods.
You can’t be lonely if you have
a philodendron, that’s what I say
before I pour myself another
cigarette, sort the mail — mine
and my neighbors’ — look out to
see whether there’s any sun left.