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Note for the following three poems: In 1965, a bottlenose dolphin christened Peter was the subject of a scientific experiment For six weeks, he lived in a flooded apartment in the Virgin Islands with a woman named Margaret Howe, who was tasked with teaching him human language Needless to say, this was not successful     Margaret’s Visitor The doorbell never rings I still anticipate the TV sitcom bait-and-switch, the postboy’s shock as Peter concertinas through the water to the door, rotates the handle with his bottlenose and nabs the letter in his mouth, delivering a suave Midwestern ‘Thanks’ – and I descend, still fresh from six weeks in a Lurex bathing suit, to wait for his reply I see the postboy see the desk that hovers with its laminated paperwork, like the chrome cloud of an indifferent God; the hair I shaved to bring us closer tufting out, my black lips like a faded mime: and I see Peter, halfway human now, his eyes above the water sitting on his nose, easy as spectacles ‘Oh no,’ he says, ‘it’s no trouble at all,’ craning to sign, the pen between his teeth I’m by his side: a painting of two homesteaders leaning on leaf-nets as if they were farming tools A ball bobs in the background, childishly, but we have put such things away I ask him where he’d like our new delivery We watch the postboy stagger, fish-legged, down the street, his mouth a gasping blowhole     Fourth of July Of course he wouldn’t wear a hat Of course the soggy tickertape Of course this can of frosting in the dark, water-light softening its jagged edges, and for just a tick I seriously thought: what if I