Village of Ice

Beyond These Walls

Suzanne

In a Fugue

Hands of Red Clay

The Mentor

A Ladder Will Reach You

The Quintessential Miscreant

Almost a Man in the Hood

Technobank

Restlessness

No Such Thing

An Uneasy Recovery

The Light of Day

A Ladder Will Reach You

Lonely and slouched, rocking in the chair
bottle of moonshine half empty next to the leg
I listen discreetly
to the runner rubbing the edge of the beaker
curious of the once in a lifetime note it creates
saddened as I attend to matters of the heart.

As my mind wanders aimlessly down a half lit alley
suspicious of the sound my sneakers make
on the slick blacktop,
leery of the lingering smell of tobacco
in the moist air
distressed by the district�s depreciating value
I quicken my pace at the thought of being stalked.

The heartbeat increases
the eyesight sharpens
the sense of smell rises twentyfold.
Like a dream, this black and white world around me
is lucid and obscure
reveals to me in step by step macros
every footfall I�ve ever taken
the uncompromising consequences.

My flurry leads me to a rural highway
wooden ladders displace the mile markers.
Infinate and igher than skyscrapers
each numbered and named and weathered
each revealing a truth at its peak
only one reserves the rights
to your true locality.

Lonely and slouched, rocking in the chair
I reach for the bottle
before returning to the ladders.

Copyright, 1996, by J. Matthew Waters
The Next Poem is The Quintessential Miscreant
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