2 June 2003 | Vol. 3, No. 2

Nerve

Fireworks threatened to take the top off. Wet palms

twitched under eruptions of happiness.

Shoes by the door piled up like pups—cornered, laces

tangled, tongues caught in a lie. Checkmark wings

on canvas heels had been tools toward anonymity,

erasing footprints where they fell, driving zigzag dogs

crazy as they nipped at nothing.