The Alternate

Sebastian.

The S is a heavy loop of wire

leaning against the request for 2% milk

and a pack of sixty-watt bulbs.

She was sitting at the kitchen table

in a house that doesn't exist anymore,

pressing the ballpoint so hard

the ghost of the person I didn't become

is still there on the back of the envelope.

It’s a ridge of paper I can feel with my thumb,

a name for a boy who wouldn't have

broken so many things.