His face appeared arbitrarily:
I just sank the serrated jack-knife
blade into the orange eye socket,
sawed away, and there he was.
I was dismayed to see the dead
in a jack o’lantern face, but he refused
to leave, just lolled on the table
leering at me. When I lit the candle
he glared all night, smelling slightly
putrid, as pumpkins and road-kill will.
If I carve another, will his twin appear?

surface blindly
abandon warm pillow
claw into cool almost-dark
stare half dreaming
child-height pathway
suggestion of shirt draped
on embracing chair
foggy clock-face
car mumble
gulp surge of water
sag back
warm stare
light-glimmed ceiling
Now I hear your soft suffling snore.