| Ashlight |
| oh gods why why the gray, gray unlight pale shadow clouds of exhaust drifting past melding with the monochrome fog small whorls of white and a thin water-ghost of a sun the brown sand salt turns white on black boots and black coats and red on cars hissing beneath the skidding tires over an unseen line but it�s too gray to argue just exchange insurance cards and tow trucks is it noon yet? has the light changed since the dim of that ancient day before the sun and the moon when the timeless stars watched the still earth from their crystalline spheres? last week or the week before there was sun a brilliant shattering globe hung in the pale cloudless sky the skyscrapers of clouded glass blazed scarlet suspended in a sea of azure and the river running gray at their feet a brief glance thin faceless forms huddle over the bridge and pass on Just one: a mother alone with her arms filled with groceries and her eyes bent to the ground walking carefully on the uneven ice her black coat sweeps along the snow and the salt sleet stinging her red face and she sets down the bags in the uncertain lee of the bus shelter tilts back her head and laughs the tears freezing in her eyes while the fog echoes �Who laughs? who laughs?� |
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| � 2003 Kyle Altis. All rights reserved. |