To Nap ~ Jesse Lee Kercheval

on vacation–

is the letting go of time.

To sit, dozing in

a garden in France–

only half listening to

the cows mooing

as cows do even in the Loire,

to the neighbors cheering

a goal on satellite TV–

is to let go of geography,

of all the trouble

and expense we go

through to be somewhere–

tickets, long flight,

guidebooks. Today

let the cathedrals

go unseen with

their stained

glass & reliquaries–

bits of bone

as small & white

as the sugar cubes

I stirred this morning

in my café noir.

The coffee that is not

keeping me awake

as I doze–one sleeper

on a planet where

half the world is always

sleeping. Nap–

surrounded by

rolled Rs as bees

ronflent & a single

fat French fly robinets

at the window.