I never would’ve noticed
were it not pointed out
during my uncle’s quest for a leak
that confounded
many scholars of the forms
of curving water lines &
drains. There, in back
of the sink’s cabinet:
a stripe that could’ve been glue
or a quirk in the design.
“That’s real bad,” he says,
touching black to be sure
like a teen stick-poking
a meteorite before
ending up swallowed by jelly
in The Blob. Does that make me
young Steve McQueen—
cocksure, hot-rodding,
ready to save the day?
No, I prefer to run,
even if it dooms Earth
to be the old fruit in aspic.