poem

Sidewalks

A neighborhood without sidewalks

Is a world unlimned.

Staggering along soft shoulders

One leg slanting lower than the other,

It’s dumb and dangerous.

Cars honking, swerving

You can't trust your fellow man

On the arbitrary grids he’s laid out

Especially in the dark

You leap into the boggy ditch.

Beyond the ditch is a rising plain,

But it’s just a yard

Goose-bumped grass iced in frost

Like it’s afraid of the dark,

A lawn bounded by another.

Homes and fences.

It all belongs to someone else.

Stick to the road.

But this old road is no good.

This road just goes into town

Which is just a place 

To pour out the asphalt

And lay some red bricks down

I want to make a home

Beyond the borders

Of the known 

dutifully mapped world.

Let us trace a path,

My hand guiding your fingers

Across conjured maps 

Etched on blank sheets.

Look, we can’t help it,
it's happening without trying;

Straight, cross-hatched lines 

All across the page,

Hopscotching from thought to thought,

Leaping across cracks

In our imaginary sidewalk.  

8/12/19