The dentist calls to cancel
and the day opens unexpected rooms;
spaces with unknown properties;
free and semi-free clauses,
stammered-out sentence structures
flopping in the wind;
lives rattling off in every direction,
like cockroaches across lit night tiles
on Blackwell Street in Dallas

Suddenly you find yourself snagged
in winding bloodlines;
watching countries changing names
in their atlases,
while the causes of great wars creep away
on ant-feet

The dentist calls to cancel
and the world must be rebuilt
in haste;
retouched with an unsteady hand