It wasn’t so much the puppets—
They were dead in the sewers hung up along 

   The curbs—
Or even a big wedge of corned beef.

I picked up twenty knives before I found one heavy enough
Because the heart’s gnarled meat—you know this, right?

The flowers
Blooming along the windows in the elementary school

Blistered like soft blouses …
Man looked at herself in a mirror and that was that

The tape
Looped back over and over again unlike the tracks of animals