Joseph Sleeps,

his eyelids like a moth’s fringed wings. Arms flail against the Ninja Turtle sheet and suddenly-long legs race time. Awake, he’s a water-leak detector, a recycling ranger who bans Styrofoam and asks for beeswax crayons, a renewable resource. He wants to adopt the Missouri river, write the president to make factories stop polluting. They’re old friends, he and George Bush. He writes and scolds the president, every month or so, about the bombing the children of Iraq (he made his own sign to carry in protest), about the plight of the California condor and northern gray wolf, about more shelters and aid for the homeless. The lion-shaped bulletin board in his room is covered with pictures and letters from George, who must be nice, even if he is a slow learner. Joseph is a mystery fan, owns 54 Nancy Drews. Nancy’s his friend, along with Jo, Meg, and Amy and poor Beth, of course, whom he still mourns. He also reads of knights and wizards, superheroes, and how to win at Nintendo. The cats and houseplants are his to feed and water and the sunflower blooming in the driveway’s border of weeds. He drew our backyard to scale, using map symbols, sent off to have it declared an official wildlife refuge, left a good-night note on my pillow, written in Egyptian hieroglyphs. In my life, I have done one good thing.