"Washing Windows"-- "All day, we make our clockwise circle
around the house, you on the inside, me on the out,
going through the motions, the awkward ballet
of some purgatorial experiment.
Our polishing's the matched waves,
one pressed against the other, nodding, tapping, rubbing out
this streak and that.
What is that you're saying, mine or yours,
I shout, trying to remember what I did at the party last night.
Did you really do your kick-up dance from the West Side Story?
And did I, late, whirl around with a lampshade on my head,
arms out, in hilarious mockery of the cliche of myself?
Nevertheless, it's finally done.
And having spent just a few hours from our lives,
we're back to where we started, grinning at one another,
at our prospect, to sit inside for one
moment of the year purged at last, completely sober,
watching the wind outside, that vagrant never so transparent,
staggering around the neighborhood."