One is the man I’ve seen hurling a
tennis ball against the walls of his own home
he once threw himself down on
our sidewalk to attract a crowd
while his bag of grocery store red apples
emptied and rolled

One is the woman who chatters by force
her mouth splayed open,wide
for the dentist, an ear-pop on a plane
an exclamation point
she details her cardigan’s origin story, mends it
points to lime green vintage thread

One is shaped like an egg he walks
with his hands deep in brown pockets
strideslike ametronome
keeps busy retrieving the
one item he forgot from the store, back
on the bus, pays the fare again like a new day

When two of our black cats turned up dead
        the same day we suspected one, told none