Old Scar -March 13

I first lived in this neighborhood
around 1971... moved here again in 1978...
been here ever since...

I walk through parallel universes on this street...
I still see the trees that grew here,
a pair of arbor vitae...
trimmed to form an arch...

now a pair of matching wooden curiosities.

drink

Just a little gutter irony...

hands

My husband's grandmother...
born late in the 19th century,
grew up on a Webster County Missouri farm.
Helping a careless brother chop firewood,
she lost the first joint
of her right index finger.
She had dainty little hands.
After she died, I found a dozen pair
of beautiful little kid gloves in
her top drawer.
I have very small hands too.
Thinking they might fit me,
I discovered
a tiny wad of cotton...
tucked into the right index finger
of each right hand glove.

trash day

walking through the historic district on the edge of campus... trash day, city cans on wheels, neat stacks of recycling, boxes from new shoe racks, organic milk, and FedEx evidence of online shopping... nothing in between the sequential driveways but dry leaves and the occasional twig...

my neighborhood, a mile further up the hill, is not a bad neighborhood, we've got the wheelie cans and stacks of bottles and cans and newspaper... but we're closer to Central Avenue... old Route 66... workin' girls and alley biz... and we've got a lot more stuff in between our trash cans...

stuff in categories...

discarded Bic lighter, rolling papers, butts, empty Skoal cans and American Spirit packs... Jack Daniels miniature, Smirnoff label, Bud can, Corona cap... bits of tail light reflectors, greasey bolts, squashed metal fittings, chromed plastic slivers, shimmering auto glass crumbs... spent condoms and rubber gloves in bright colors... chards of a Tom Waits song...

and this little cloud of cardboard butterflies... someone in a hurry to get to the contents...

time tick

iPod over ambience,
blues and campus bell tower
mingling in my left ear
I untangle
Westminster 9 o'clock
from the words of the song,
"time bomb tickin'"
damn! I'm late for work!

not

not.
do not.
barrier?
or jumping off point?

coil

at first
I thought maybe a can...
an empty tomato sauce can...
but it wasn't quite right...
the arch and ridges perfect and
beautiful...
maybe a roll of copper tubing
caught in a perfect squash...
every element in sync with
the final form