Coo -- cue? -- of mourning
Doves -- day begins -- Hoot of the
Owl starts a new night

December 1970
I'm 14
Stuck at my grandma's
Tired of the drone of Howard Cosell
I go walking
Jim + Lydia etched on a square
Then up ahead
A dude ten years older at least
Just the age I look up to
But this one holding by the hand
A little girl ten years my junior
"Where's the doggie?"
"It's in the..."
His words fade.

December 2010
I'm 54
Paused in this city where my grandmother lived
Tired of the drone of NPR
I get out
Pass the old house
Hands held up against the memories
Jim + Lydia 40 years on -- Still together? I'd like to ask
Then up ahead
An elderly man 10 years my senior
And a woman 10 years my junior
"Look, they put stained glass on their alcove."
"Yeah, they decided to..."
His words fade.

The rust-colored rooster
Hemmed in by rusted mesh wire
The white crane
Looking down on a floor of white clouds
One is boastful
The other humble

A long red light
Kick the kickstand down
Lift up your legs
Form into a lotus pose
Palms out to the sun
Meditate

Green light
Kick up the kickstand
Quick turn left
Quick turn right

Into the lane
Graced by a handpainted sign:
Welcome
Noon
AA Meeting

"Do you have any smokes?"
The kid in the Afro asks me.
"No, I don't,"
I tell him.
"Ah, this sun is nice,"
says the woman with what sounds like an African accent.
"Look, Mama, I'm riding him,"
shouts the boy on the sculpture of the frog reading a book
to its spawn.
Then the front door opens
And we walk into the quiet room.

I saw a slim snake
slither and surmised that such
sparked the letter S

They said hang him high
So they cleared the woods
West of the dried up creek
And the forest
North of the blasted mill

To build a gallows
With a thousand stairs
Some said two thousand
While the master carpenter said
He lost count

So we crowded
To watch the hangman
Escort the condemned up
And we watched them
Rise and ascend

Until they disappeared into the clouds
And we waited to see the body drop
And the hangman descend
But neither appeared
Then the gallows came crashing down

And all we could find in the pile
Were boards, nails, and a noose
But the hangman, the condemned
Or any remnants of them
were nowhere to be seen