What Kept Us Together

You're not going to like this.
I don't like it.

It wasn't love
or even hope of love.

What kept us together
was objects.

I didn't want to move the piano to a new house.
I didn't want to buy myself a television.

As long as we were together
these objects were kept in place,
as if by wires.

The Consultant

The scientists told me they were injecting dreams into cows. Into some cows they injected cow dreams, and into other cows they injected human dreams.

The cows with the human dreams, they told me, were keeping journals of their dreams in their dreams. But the cows with the cow dreams were not keeping journals.

Isn't that interesting? they asked me. Isn't that a major leap forward in the study of cows and dreams?

But the cows with the cow dreams don't have hands in their dreams, I said. They just have hooves, so they can't hold pens or pencils, so of course they can't keep journals.

Oh no, said the scientists. We didn't think of that. It's good we consulted you.