Click the arrow on the audio player to hear Brenda Shaughnessy read this poem. You can also download the recording or subscribe to Slate's Poetry Podcast on iTunes.

I can’t tell you
how often.

You in the grocery store
embarrassing

everyone with
the lettuce.

Elsewhere, food
in the file folders.

It’s not supposed to
be there, get it?

Another time you
were rolling down a hill

like a blueberry
rolling toward

me, a bear who will
eat anything

this time of year
but wants

just you. Then
you are not you but

the plum of a pebble
that I skipped

into the lake
and found somehow

night after night.

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