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.