“Their whistles weird shadows of sound.”
—Sara Teasdale, from “From the Woolworth Tower”

Paint her as a child
on the one that crosses
Vineyard Sound. Forget to warn him
when the whistle blows
above his always lilting

head. Impress upon those who might
refuse to reflect on anything
more than a moment
old that memory comes with the package—
stories stored and ripe

for a dusting off
embellishment. Liars and thieves
in the best sense of those words—
weird and sound.