Though only a few miles
further east, she thought of
herself as nearer to the sun.
Faulty logic is nothing like
faulty piping. The tower’s
steps, dark and cool. But why
should an eighth-grade
understanding of temperature
suffice, ergo language, ergo
empathy. The children
troubled the ducks, no matter
the children, never mind
the ducks. With water
in mind, with water at
heart, we set out walking
south and arrived at water.
The door stood open,
allowing warm air from the
deck to mix with cooled air
from the house in a sort of
floating estuary navigated by
bugs. Sudden noise was
usually a timer buzzing or
beeping, which someone
slapped shut or off.
Andy Stallings lives, teaches, and coaches cross country running at Deerfield Academy in Western Massachusetts. His first book of poems, To the Heart of the World, came out with Rescue Press in 2014, and other poems from Paradise can be found around the internet.