Cinquain During Class Over Zoom, Looking Out My Bedroom Window Only To See My Neighbor In A Bright Yellow Hazmat Suit Walking Her Dogs, Kind Of Understanding Where She’s Coming From But Not Really

like fire
like a bad joke
like skulls scooped into shells
like gusts seizing your red balloons
like flies

On Duty

Just now on this warm and breezy afternoon at the beach a little cyclops girl starts drowning. The lifeguard is on duty. Lacking depth perception, her parents misjudge her thrashing as playing about the waves. The sea yanks her further from shore. The lifeguard has two eyes, but he is sleeping.

Do not wake him.

That would be rude.