with no one to blame
to bear a grudge against
for all the things that
could not have happened
in a slightly different order
of personal pronouns
mr nothing took a picture
of the full moon marked
with blooming phlox
and some onlookers
holding their umbrellas
they both knew the ordeal
of nocturnal vigilance
in the trial by cloudburst
it was a story like many
typed for the innocents
with a questionable purpose
if only the poet stopped
laughing before he decided
between a stolen remington
and a smith-corona
found at a flea market
hidden pilcrow 