entering Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello’s
poem “Ode to This Small Joy.”

A giraffe is staring at me
outside my living room window

under the moon I can’t see
but know is there.

A giraffe is humming
and batting its long lashes at me.

I pick up the melody:
Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem.”

I join in. We hum past midnight
deep into the wee hours. I swear I hear

it whisper “There’s a crack
in everything” as day breaks

across that magnificent neck.
“That’s how the light gets in.”