I started a long time ago
to tell you about this town.

There is a thing the trees
do here with failure.

They blame no one. Look at them
moving in the wind.

I'm here to tell you it takes,
sometimes, a life

to notice they are like a photograph
which is itself

like an afternoon
you have just now remembered.

The problem was always
how to give you the specifics.

But now that I tell you everything
what are you going to do

with the mail box, the water tower,
the front porch, the trees

beside the interstate, all signs
saying where something was?