ROBERT LOPEZ

Somewhere Other Than Florida

Even before I begin I should start over
Start with a horse, say, or a toothbrush
Something that takes up space on the earth
Something that would make a noise if you dropped
It on the floor
Or if it
Dropped by itself
It shouldn’t matter if it is alive or not
If it is a living thing
I have often mistaken a woman for an armoire
A dog for a pitchfork
A glass of beer for a butterfly
The cricket chirps through the night the same as 
A lawn mower cuts grass
There is no real difference 
Nor any reason they can’t trade jobs tomorrow
The cricket and the lawn mower are both ready
For the change, believe me
There is no proof it hasn’t all been a grand mistake
Ours to fix
I propose we reconsider all objects
The old woman on the train
Reading a magazine
A Japanese beetle crawling across the kitchen floor
An antique desk
On the sidewalk outside a laundromat
Try to remember something you have no business remembering
Something you’ve never tried to remember
The crème brûlée at that restaurant downtown
The turbulence on the flight to Florida when you were fourteen
How the passengers whooped and hollered like they were on
A roller coaster going fast, going too fast, going
Somewhere other than Florida.  

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