Thursday, May 27, 2021

Treetops and Rooftops

Out my kitchen window is a lovely eastern golden morning view of treetops and rooftops
that sometimes actually glisten.
and then, of course, as I knew when I made the decision to live there,
the inevitable relationship with the alley.
It’s an alley; people use it as a bypass or a hiding place.
This morning I saw a young man walking slowly up the alley,
dressed for a Sunday afternoon on a Monday morning.
I adjusted the blind so he wouldn’t see me looking
and plugged in the coffee pot.
Was he calm or lost in thought?
Out of a driveway a car crept up the center of the alley behind him, super slowly.
I turned to put the bread in the toaster and set the butter beside it.
I went back to the window. The car had stopped.
He had stepped in front of it like Superman. But I couldn’t read the mood—
he walked around to the driver’s open window
and leaned his hips full contact with the door to talk.
I got the milk for the coffee.
I looked again. Now a woman was out of the car, embracing him.
She was dressed for work.
Did I hear crying? Murmurs.
Consoling? Arguing?
Pleas? Admonishments?
It all just sounded so watery, distant.
But then she sobbed pain and hurt or was it anger?
I looked down to butter the toast
and when I looked again she was back in the car,
and there was some kind of continuing exchange…
“Don’t drag it out,” I said to no one but me, “Just drive away.”
It really was none of my business so I ate my breakfast.
I don’t know what she did.
But when I brought my empty dishes to the sink,
there was no sign of either of them,
just the view of the treetops and the rooftops,
colors sharpening in the day’s advancing light,
and the alley of course.
JO'S/ 2016

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Walking to the Store


Waiting at the red light to cross the big street,
I always step back from the curb to be visible, as I am vulnerable.
Across the several lanes of traffic
a silver car slows to make a right (it has the light).
I catch sight of the woman driving with smooth confidence,
steady agency,
and it occurs to me,
(perspective: historically)
fearlessness reigns
with the car as the apparatus,
as there and there and here and there they go,
finally, the commoners have attained knighthood status
each and all
(ostensibly so)
clad in a suit of armor.