The pears
in the icebox
are enough

Sitting in syrup
covered by Saran wrap
they wait for me

The pears in the icebox
are not enough.
I give them to the castaway
in the cardboard box on Greenwich Street.
She eats them straight away,
but she has no spoon,
no water to wash the empty bowl
or her lips
of the syrup whose sweet scent
the rats will follow,
no bathroom when the pears purge her.

The pears
in the icebox
are enough

The pears in the icebox
are not enough.


			Brandywine
			2/19/01