He appears out of nowhere rarely ends well. It could be years until you notice

how he altered your life like a hook
around your waist, pulling you off the dance floor.

He appeared out of nowhere. He sat down,
laid one palm open on the table and hid the other.

I read it as he started up my leg:
a long life, a happy happy happy life.

I don’t believe it, I say.
But it happens in front of my eyes.

The whole thing: children / dogs
and cut vegetables clogging the sink,

cancer and his hand around my jaw,
a pressure that shakes something good out of me.

He appeared like a hand starting the magic show: gloved, so you can’t see the trick, so you just go for it.

Where’d she go?, the crowd asks. She’s right there, she’s in the wings,

waiting for another song or a better magician.