Walking with my daughter,
I found the paper
grounded in the gutter:

Study: Bagels linked
to increased risk
of lung cancer

Walking on, looking back
I watch the wind whip
the rag down the alley.

My daughter, all of 7, had a
bagel for lunch. Still, she
scampered up the avenue.

Dead ahead, plum trees,
exploding in purple, rustled
restlessly like the paper,

Never looking back, she
separated. Now, I would
worry about bagels, too.