Late One Late November Afternoon

She’s using stencils 

to ink some letters 

on the unprimed canvas 

of her summer dress. 

She’s using all the numbers 

and all the symbols too. 

The number eight 

and the cents sign 

lie exhausted on their sides, 

asking when it got to be 

this dark and why can’t she

just go away and leave them 

to their private language.

[LSS, 11/25/20]