When the CNN reporter asks
a woman at the Kabul market why
after ten years of liberation do wives
still walk behind their husbands,
she replies landmines. Sometimes
practical answers are the most
unimaginable. I was going to say
something about the half-mast flag
of American exceptionalism,
but then the sun came out on this,
the last Sunday in May and I saw you
wading into the river with your pants rolled up
as if to assure me the current wasn’t
too strong and today, at least,
we can skip stones and no one will drown.