"If we left this town,
We could walk the earth together."
- Bernard Sumner, "Paradise"
Apartments stand as trees would,
framing ice-sculpture clouds.
Cars rattle by, their wheels
looking like tarnished nickels.
A hubcap on the median
is upturned, filled with rainwater.
A bird drinks from it,
wings twitching warily.
Plastic sacks plaster the curb.
Children scurry like lizards
over the fading crosswalk.
The bird blinks black eyes.
You are calling me back from the window,
calling me to come back,
but what will we do, here alone,
when the water and the bird have vanished?
Copyright 2006 by the Tipton Poetry Journal.
All rights remain the exclusive property of the individual poet and may not be used without their permission.