Labels

            Most people in museums spend twice as long looking at labels as looking at art.

Where did I read that?
You think: how sad for the Modiglianis.

But I like explanations
sometimes more than the things themselves.

Like: my mother sent my brother off to college
with houseplants and after one semester,

when we visited his dorm room,
what was left were pots of dirt

balanced on windowsills and labels
he'd stuck in each saying, "plant." Or that former boyfriend

from Toronto. What I liked best wasn't him
but the sign in his otherwise empty freezer:

"Scale model of Canada's frozen tundra
to make Dave feel more at home."