You let the goat leave. Your first

mistake was not following those

distinctive pancake footprints

before the rain obscured them, as minor

at the time as an attempted substitution

of over-easy for Oscar-worthy

cinematography. But it never fails,

maybe a week later you’re

on the corner of Fifth and South

and the guy with the lazy eye

and the bleached blonde hair comes

up to you and instead of the usual

line about the lost bus pass he

asks you “do you know anything

about the bearded elephant that fled

its pen yesterday in Manayunk?”

And at that point there’s not much

you can do except nod your head

to whatever song blares from Tower

Records and wonder how

your little guy grew up so fast.