"I wanted to be surprised."
"To such a request, the world is obliging.
In just the past week, a rotund porcupine, who seemed equally
startled by me.
The man who swallowed a tiny microphone
to record the sounds of his body,
not considering beforehand how he might remove it.
A cabbage and mustard sandwich on marbled bread.
How easily the large spiders were
caught with a clear plastic cup surprised even them.
I don't know why I was surprised every time love started
or ended, or why each time a new fossil, Earth-like planet,
or war, or that no one kept being there when the door knob
had clearly--
What should not have been so surprising--
my error after error, recognized when appearing
on the faces of others.
What did not surprise enough--
my daily expectation that anything would continue,
and then that so much did continue, when so much did not.
Small rivulets still flowing downhill
when it wasn't raining.
A sister's birthday.
Also, the stubborn, courteous persistence,
that even today please means please,
good morning is still understood as good morning,
and that when I wake up, the window's distant mountain
remains a mountain.
The burrowed city around me is still a city, and standing.
Its alleys and markets, offices of dentists,
drugstore, liquor store, Chevron.
Its library that charges--
a happy surprise-- no fine for overdue books--
Borges, Baldwin, Szymborska, Morrison, Cavafy."