absence
		--------------------------------------------------------

		homework done she races for bed
		you call her for goodnights and i love yous
		she cuddles back then upstairs and gone
		so short on ceremony

		engrossed in details
		reciting the narrative of and this happened
		that is sooo disgusting
		that is sooo cool
		when i'm twenty i will retire
		and live in that house (points to a house on saratoga lake)

		absent in a thousand small spaces
		manager of cats and wide-eyed faces
		a smile articulated for the millennium
		a child a 100% premium orange juice pineapple child
		when she's absent you know what it is to be forlorn


			Marek Lugowski
			17 October 1999
			Valley Falls, New York