Open the lid! If you have to

use teeth: hailstones

left over from the winter making room

–inside the can

its paint spins backward

covers a rot that never leaves

and when the carpenters finish

rust –you stir till winds

begin to warm from the rain

brush against your arm

pulling the sun closer

firmly on the sill

–sometimes it takes all Spring

sometimes a few weeks, the air

little by little growing mold

worn out through the year

that has nothing to do with love opens

before you can catch your breath.