It is not orange season and so 
 the woman at the register 
 charges two dollars extra to 
 hunch over them - swaddle in 
 my arms just a little bit longer
 There is a man at the park, 
 jogging and does not stop so 
 I cannot pet his dog and the dog 
 and I eye each other regretfully
  
 You are right about grief
 I carry it in my spine:
  
 We keep saying that it isn’t 
 what you are now: the belly fat 
 gained by sleeping maggots
 in their winter skins but how
 those same maggots didn’t 
 so much as tease the skin 
 for the first four months you
 lay in their dirt