it took a left and a right
it went for blocks and blocks
past homes with purple doors
and turquoise newels it was open
to suggestion following the terrain
within a grey-sweater sky chimneys
leaning in the still air and one tiny
glass-walled house sprung from a roof
pots suspended inside overflowing
leaves flowers its season separate
from the unglassed world beyond it
a steeple and a narrow steep-walled valley
the new train track extension within
My walk found a bench beside a park
for me to sit and take notes and
further on a public green lawn
with one man smoking
The walk I tell you was full
of gambrel medallions and
cracked driveways Lenten roses
and plaster pastel Easter bunnies
raw stumps along new wire fences
and elephantine roots overflowing
onto sidewalk and on one corner
a square of white stones displayed
an iron mouth the width of three of me
baring ten thousand bundled wires—
black teeth wreathed in iridescent
isinglass and from the mouth a throat
and from the throat rounded shoulders
each piece wrapped in mantles of mica
that found the light in the clouds above
and mirrored the glint of my own eye
It was revealing and lonely
the almost-sunny April afternoon walk