Sketch

SKETCH

Hot wind of bus exhaust
Lifts scraps of today’s news
high above the street
Phone numbers scrawled on a bus stop bench
The dealer,
the lover,
the dentist
share this common thread
Sit waiting by the phone
for the bus rider’s call
Jack hammer pounding
cement saw
slices sidewalk into manageable pieces
Clouds of chalky white dust float
upward into the city skyscape
Fall back
onto rooftop gardens and sleeping dogs

The Corner of the Arbor - Really

Early morning
At the computer keyboard
Sunlight streams through the window
Must write -- something...

I think about the Guardian exercise sent out last week
-- Paint a picture with words --
I start with a quick glance.

I'm not sitting in the moonlight
Or under the arbor
There are no stars
No spider
No web

They exist only in my mind's eye
Though I can see an arbor from my paradisical
writing spot by the window

I picture the scene
like an old blockprint/lithograph
that might have illustrated "Ivanhoe"
Or "Treasure Island" in the late 1800s

I don't use the word "WEB" - spider's "WEB" -
too cliche-ish, over-used symbology
"yadah yadah ... spider's web ... yadah yadah yadah"
I use TRAP instead
to describe the spider's labors
and finally

peace! No tricks, no traps -- peace . . .

Copyright 2005 E. Bond Francisco

[with thanks to Alison!]

Corner of the Arbor

Glance right
stop
Stare
Stay there - focused
Bring your vision in from the stars
In from the moon bright hanging below them
In from the clouds lined with silver
In from the tree tops
dancing in the night breeze

To the corner of the arbor
Grape leaf broad
Dark in the moonlight
Spider spinning traps
Leaf to leaf

Peace

Copyright 2005 E. Bond Francisco