strangers at the next table
speak so loudly
you can’t capture the next
image in its naked moment
the way Bachelard would have wanted.

Instead, you hear:

If you get chickens,
don’t sleep with them.

I heard about a woman
who slept with a snake.

My sister tried to sleep
with me last night.

That mannequin has no clothes on—
visible or invisible
to the naked eye. And you
like the red cat stick figure
bike corral best.