The Dispatcher

Five days a week he got home at 7:30 in the morning. He was a dispatcher for the town police department. After a night of disrespect from younger coworkers it was good to get back within the familiar dirty walls of home. He’d been a U.S. Marine, a Justice of the Peace, and a “gentleman farmer” but now he took minimum wage.

The dented door of his Wagoneer creaked open and then reluctantly clunked shut with a shove. Dew on unmowed grass wet his cuffs as he walked to the door.

He didn’t glance toward the Lincoln. It’d been brand new such a short pair of decades ago. Now it seemed to be trying to sink into the thinly graveled driveway. Unrepaired after a minor wreck a few years back, it had faded from luxury to junk.

In the house she had coffee ready for him. She handed him a cup, kissed him goodbye and left for work. She was a longtime teller at the bank. It wasn’t much fun anymore. These days it seemed like there was always a new system being implemented and a learning curve to go with it.

He was so tired. The October sunshine was too loud for sleeping. All he could think about was how tired he was. He had a couple of hours before he had to be at his other job. He was also a part-time security guard. Leaves needed to be raked. Not today. He picked up the newspaper and wondered if he could justify mixing himself a highball at this time of day.

Tiny Sirens

On hands and knees I enter the loft
Drawn into the slow motion
Of floating dust and bale debris
Leveraging breaths like rubber
Stretched between shoulders and ribs

The price of my admission is asthma
Which is psychosomatic
According to my grandfather

My wheezing is a descant
To the tiny sirens that guide me
Deeper into the straw world
I’m creeping through ochre shadows
To find a crèche of infant kittens

The Adhesive is Failing

Cubes of cold marimba
Clatter against the shallow sides
Of a thick-bottomed glass

My grandfather grips the Manhattan
Like a handrail
Beads of condensation
Blink between his tanned fingers

His black Oxfords tread
Worn-out linoleum
Stuck to farmhouse floorboards

The adhesive is failing

Porch Piano

Unboarded for summer
June bugs thumb heavily
Against rusted screens at night

Cigar clamped in his unshaved smile
Cocktail nearby
Eyes the color of sea foam

His right hand pets a melody
While the left strides
Between chord comp and bass line

From a never-tuned piano
Whispering, Stardust, and Blue Hawaii
Drift nightward like spirits