by Daniel Liddle
I do not know how this bat
snuck into my apartment
but it cries like it knows
that it doesn’t belong here
crawling from room to room.
A year ago, two days into the lease,
the landlord asked me to emcee
a regional children’s beauty pageant,
Ages six months to six years,
boys and girls,
I garbled through the names of
so many kids
and so many towns
as their parents looked on impatiently.
