Picture Window

By Danny Caine

Danny Caine is struggling to adapt to new fatherhood when the Covid-19 pandemic upends, well, everything. All of a sudden, the glorious world he hoped to share with his son has shrunk, at times composing not much more than his rented house in Kansas and the small par

• Language: English
• Publisher: Autofocus Books
• Release date: Jan 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781957392141

Danny Caine

Danny Caine is the author of the book How to Resist Amazon and Why, as well as the poetry collections Continental Breakfast, El Dorado Freddy’s, and Flavortown. One of the owners of the Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas, he was named Midwest Bookseller of the Year in 2019. More at dannycaine.com.

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Contents

PICTURE WINDOW

PICTURE

WINDOW

Danny Caine

autofocus books

Orlando, Florida

©Danny Caine 2023

All rights reserved.

Published by Autofocus Books

PO Box 560002

Orlando, Fl 32856

autofocuslit.com

Poetry

ISBN:

978-1-957392-13-4 (print)

978-1-957392-14-1 (ebook)

Cover Illustration ©Amy Wheaton

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022946988

For Kara and Jack

PICTURE

WINDOW

One

Abbott looks down into the heaping drawer of weeks. This is how you know you have Time in your house: you discover its shed skins.

— Chris Bachelder, Abbott Awaits

It’s an imaginary landscape, a place to raise your kids.

—True Stories

A Room to Myself

The American Pickers are in tears

over Aerosmith’s van;

upstairs in 525 they’re running

receiving routes with an anvil.

I should be back home trying

to open the wrong Prius

in the daycare parking lot.

I should be watching my son

wrestle an invisible version

of himself

because I asked him to

put on the wrong pair of socks.

The thread count on these sheets

is itch hundred and honestly, same

with the ones at home but those

at least smell bad in a familiar way.

I’d trade every quiet second

in this Holiday Inn Express

for one small pile of wet cheerios

decomposing into carpet.

Tonight should be my best night

of sleep in months—a room to myself—

but I can’t relax for the invisible version

of myself, asking me questions.

The Center of The Universe

The Center of the Universe

is a parking lot in downtown Tulsa

where you can say hello and the universe

says hello back, in your own voice, louder

The Center of the Universe

is in the updates to the privacy policy

The Center of the Universe

is in a Popeye’s in Des Moines

where they just cleaned the bathrooms

The Center of the Universe

is in the window where you type your last

name and room number to turn on the wifi

The Center of the Universe

is clanking in the hallway

next to your room all night

Select all squares that contain

The Center of the Universe

The Center of the Universe

is tucked inside the folder

with your boarding pass and claim tags

The Center of