To create an abstract
One need only view those heavy gray clouds
Threaded with white and tiny,
Near-hidden, patches of blue
From a back-lit window
Its third thick glass layer reflecting
Squared white tiles from the ceiling,
Squared dark shelving,
And row upon row of books:

They serve more function that their printed contents
--- Insert smile and knowing Internet wink ---
They stand as excuses for the square and perfect shelving;
They stand as random colored bars,
Filling the shelves,
Sized with the modest variation of supermarket onions
     (Eighty-five cents a pound),
LC labels like old-fashioned price tags,

And fading to a background of unreflected cars,
Red and silver and deep mute blue,
Filling and overflowing a parking lot
That trails to woods on the horizon.
We sit, with focused eyes,
Duck hunters watching the sky,
Though our gaze remains within the blind,
Peeling the onion, layer by layer,
Within our windows and patterned white walls.
 
12-3-99
 

Index    Shadow Dancer