Anna Couani #104 tulips

there is

a faint shadow of an idea

an erasure

something where

a note should’ve been made

but wasn’t

and now those tulips

so turgid a few days ago

are drooping

in the daily excitement

ideas appear

and disappear

unbidden and unremarked

leaving a handful of dust

sad memories

of the gravel tennis courts

of childhood

come to mind

a yawning emptiness

not my problem

but something communicated

in yet another parental conflict