Vacancy

A crazed sizzle of bursting honey bees

in the word EAT. Past it,

a large number of stars have blurred

like left blooms in the thin

light cleaning up out there,

flooding the frigid mountains

feign by feign. Minutes after the fact,

the sign squints, winks dim,

what's more, a white-aproned cook—

surfacing in the dim sheen

of the window—inclines for a short time

like a cut lily . . . gazing out

into the hungry vacancy

he knows he should go home to.