She opens the cupboard to run
her fingers along those tin
canisters

of sleep. Which one
tonight? Where
does she want to go? Who
does she want

to encounter in her nightgown
in the rain? And those questions
she won’t ask: Why
don’t scandals have names

like hurricanes? Monosyllabic
male names: Jon, Jay,
Bill, Mike, Dirk, Al, Zeus,
Jim, Dick. No doubt

about it—her dreams bend
genres and tend to leak
if tipped too far forward.