She switches the tv on
while she's drinking coffee
and the first thing she sees
is that red, white, and blue
God knows what
they saw last night:

it's Humpty Dumpty.
Cinderella and Little Bo Peep
riding on the float with him
burst into song and she wonders
if they sang all the way down
or just in front of Macy's

He would have loved this

She wonders
if he stayed by the museum
or wandered downtown...

Bart Simpson goes by
on his skateboard
for the third time
the announcers say.
He was the last blown up.

They pause for commercials
and say Garfield is next,
he's the one she wants to see.
When viewing closed last night
there was still a leak in him.

Oh, he's lying down
when last night she predicted
he'd be upright
and his air still
doesn't seem enough

She remembers now
from parades as a kid:
they travel, stop, travel, stop
doing their routines
each stopping point

If she knows him
he immediately wandered
toward where the music was

After eight years
she knows him and he, her.
Without even asking this morning
he knew she'd rather sleep
and as she sits down to write this
she wonders how long this parade

The last floats must be nearing Macy's
Bart starts around yet another time.