Exhausted by houses
and their contents,
her body at last broke free,
left doors splintered outward,
left curtains slapping
in the unexpected breeze.
From high above
the grasping maples,
she began to see how
the earth curved,
how it sheltered
the little nursling moon
against its arched hip,
how stars stabbed
or oozed, so much farther apart
than she had ever imagined.
For a little while longer
she would recall the exact, humid weight
of a child
against her shoulder,
then, the fever of exploding nebulae
burned away the memory
of any human face.