INTERSECTION

I have never forgotten
you wandering in the distance up
the broad ugly boulevard
raw suburban strip
out there where large
industrial sheds
cheap discount places
low housing estates from
earlier times
spread themselves out
indolent
at the end of the bus line
surrounded by small playgrounds
parking lots
feeble trees hung
with windswept plastic
other trash
hugging the swollen roots.

You stumbled slowly along
the narrow sidewalk
eyes fixed ahead
in torpor and high heels
buttocks swathed in plastic wrap
and little else
on that frigid gray day
my eye caught your form
not deciphering it fully
until the bus had passed well ahead
nor grasping your realities
until later
on our return trip
you again wandered across
my line of vision
as the bus sped by
the large expanse of dirty
red brick factories
at the intersection of our routes.

– Diane Sophrin.
  Vermont, 3.16.19

click here to open in PDF format