Redfish Lake

At elevation I borrow
Patrick’s dead wife’s puffy

coat and Elliot’s pregnant
wife’s daypack. The PDF

of her baby too high
in resolution’ll peel a pale

forehead across my iPhone soon
but the little service we get

goes to “ersatz” and cocoa mix
nutrition facts. Patrick’s not

the type of guy who notices
if you put the puffy

on the ground to serve yourself
cocoa mix, Pilar’s sure. Patrick’s

daughter is named Piper and
camping the first summer after

asked if the eclipse was her mother!
Marshmallows grow softer

than the store promised they would
in lukewarm water. I don’t know.

I breathe only
when the line is ringing & the line

is always ringing. James whom I’m
calling might die like puffy wife and

I might whisk the crinkled panic
of a life. You have to go until your arm

gets sore. Making whipped cream
does its harm. If he died I’d

fling a fiery why way down
to the shore. His face is inches

away but sometimes more.

You can put the coat on the ground
but you dare not put it on the floor.