any interest they might have in you
is heat-driven
most are not lost in fact
they love maps especially hand-drawn ones
of invented realms but they navigate by a kind of
spiritual gps you wouldn't understand
they favor autumn and spring as more liminal
and are known to inhabit empty shoes briefly before moving on
to woolen pockets of favorite cardigans
and yes, the part about blue glass on bottle trees is true
pipe smoke and incense feel the same
like ice and stone grass and whiskers
they can't even pretend to eat the food we set out for them
and are nothing like us in shape or size or capacity
except in the permanent degree
of longing
