If the whale returns
no longer white.
If a disembodied Cocteau hand
refuses to feed her
the next morning.

If Peter Walsh sells his pocketknife
and Septimus renounces
iron fences. If
she hadn’t feared
needles. If he had.

When Buckminster Fuller meets
Isamu Noguchi
in a Greenwich Village tavern. When
Broadway meets Fifth Avenue
to birth a 22-story skyscraper.

When brackish water splashes onto her deck.
A ferry paused in a channel.

If she touches your lower lip
with her left pinky.

When a gently pressed fingerprint
becomes the new memory.