Childhood Curiosity
My mother demonstrated how to flirt
with the vacuum cleaner salesman
I studied an ironed shirt
and swell fitted pants
When he spoke I followed the movement
Of his buttoned neck between his collar bones
He unwound the cord found an outlet
Suction, we laughed one time
The salesman’s house
her parked car
My little finger pressed the bell
and had to open the door
The musculature of a man’s arms
can bar the unforeseen
The mold of his wife’s shoes
imprinted on a floor mat
This impression of an object
was what I could have focused on