The Smoke Rose Out of Manhattan

While Connecticut sent its fire engines south, the sky remained blue and full of birdsong. That’s why I don’t trust pictures of people in hammocks beside clear water. In the hospital, we did our best to keep the TV off. We focused on milk and diapers, and why our baby was yellow. By the time our daughter made it home, they still hadn’t put the fire out. She recently stopped asking for gas money, and she is headed to college now. On the other side of the world, above the liberated lands, the presidents must fly by night and unannounced.

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