The Guitar Player's Wife

She could not understand what he was still doing alive.

She glared at him and said, "I wanted you to vanish into the box-spring once I had gone."

The courtyard is silent

until a screen door opens and kids burst forth screaming to play tag

it is like watching a building give birth

She always listened to his fingers plucking at the strings

and it seemed almost insect-like

the arch and jerky movements of his fingers

like something substantially small

working its way through an over-grown landscape.

 A huge puzzle piece of cloud drifted by overhead

 she tilted her head up to the area where she felt that the sun should be

 only there was no sun, there was never a sun.

She opened all of the windows because it was supposed to cool down that night

and he climbed in, took his place next to her, and neither of them ever woke up again.