poem || Peter Sherburn-Zimmer

Clay on His Shoes

 

Always the urgency of machines,

   the forgetful organism,

the coffee machine, air-

   conditioner, the sound

   of the radiator 0-

   blitterating the slow,

quiet sound of breathing-

   bodies climbing, city

   hills, recovering a day

-- knows not what it is –

Always forgetting names,

   numbers, I'll

   see you laters –

can't get back to

   the good old used to be

-- never was, them rain-

   bow staircases --

Between trashcan alleyways,

clothesline skies, penetrating

mother's look -- before the day begins.