dimmi tutto

2024

tell me 
is he sleeping through the night
and I’ll share
my latest trip
in short staccato bullets
in interrupted paragraphs 
we will trade 
trade secrets

I am not ok
wait, you were not ok
how exactly 
did you parse the way through
this kind of thicket

now tell me, who 
is your therapist
and I’ll tell you where I stand
these days with god, even though
it’s not the answer you want to hear
and tell me
where did you find that dress
and are you sending them
to summer camp in this
thickness of June
let’s puppeteer it so 
they have bunkmates and are enthused
what’s the latest with your brother
who has lived a thousand, troubled lives
and where exactly 
do you find the margin to cope
tell me where that hurt is housed

on Saturday, I can take them to the party
if you’ll pick up
and they’ll sleep over at your house
while we are out of town
can we trade kids for a few hours
on this rainy afternoon 
that has us all crazed and cocooned
let them run around in rainboots
making forts out of umbrellas
in the yard

tell me 
has this baseball season officially
commandeered your sanity yet 
in this ebullient spring
because we all know it’s only 
a matter of time
did you read that article on AI
about Syria… about Gaza, in these times
of bleakness and despair
help me chart a way through
has it gotten any better
in your marriage
the frictions and 
stories we tell ourselves to push through
dare I ask, how’s work
tell me your latest triumph 
and I’ll pour a drink for the traumas
does she really have a boyfriend
at this age
and how fun to watch our five-year-olds
fall in love
the way we are in love
with one another
unselfconscious 
comfortably