Category Archives: Poetry

I sit in the stupor of the yard of darkness.

The only sound is the ticking of a six dollar Walmart clock.

My dog is snoring in her cage.

I get lost in the reflection of my mom’s chair in the glass.

Why is the dark beyond the reflection so intimidating?

Because it hides what is there?

Like everything else in life that I fear.

Running from the absence.

It is the same with eyes closed or open.

I am still, to old and tired to run.

I will open the patio door and suck in the still.

Walking to meet intimidation in ten dollar shoes.

Looking through red reversed letters from the window of Jill’s Diner

Waiting on a greasy burger

Thinking about the two miles from a park bench to this booth

Passing the other side of every postcard picture

Views of Columbus others do not see

A plaque on a quiet walk beneath the Third Street bridge

Professing the “death valley” survivors

Poor people living in the uncivilized early 1900’s Columbus

Hard tanned men with orange hats and vests

Working behind pylons and making downtown hum with machine noise

Crossing barricades in streets that hide developing architectural wonder

Pictures taken of sculptures, art, memorials, and bright passages through alleyways

The geometric shapes and curves of concrete and steel set against green and budding trees

Tributes in bricks laid downtown in meek monuments to many more deserving

New memorials in fresh concrete of quoted wisdoms about life or learning

The walk fills with color and reflection of one experience among generations

The surrounding fields and dirt roads changed to a humming place of people

People on their way to somewhere else perhaps

Instead they stayed here, and called it home

A woman freed from time sits contemplating over a greasy burger