from MAKE IT WAVY (2006)

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING WELL-DRESSED

To Emily Goldstein

Whenever I am in a large crowd, I always imagine 
someone will come out of the crowd and take me 
by the hand and say: “I am here to take you home.”

Sometimes it is a man who is well-dressed.

Sometimes it is a woman who is well-dressed.

Sometimes I can’t tell if it is a man or a woman 

and whether or not he or she is or is not well-dressed.

Just like the celebrities who are shopping and wearing 

sweat suits and looking really angry at the photographer 

as he snaps their photo. No matter: 

I always feel better when they walk out of the crowd 

and come to me and say, “I am here,” and then, 

“to take you home.”

Once it was a little boy in a huge bathing suit.