Mid-April in northeast Ohio.
She’s bitter at the cold,
for overstaying its welcome.
The snow obscures the line
between the sidewalk
and the Devil’s Strip.
There’s a long line
of determined footprints
punched into the snow behind her.
Halfway through a song and a cigarette,
the CD skips -
figures.
These library disks never play for ****
She ***** her fist
and whacks her Walkman.
Across the street,
in a wifebeater and sweatpants,
he people-watches from his front porch.
Sipping ***** and orange juice
from a chipped mug -
World’s Greatest Dad.
In his driveway sits a ‘97 Cavalier
with a plastic wrap passenger window
he’s hoping holds up to the wind.
Will this ever stop?
he says to himself, toward the falling snow.
A passerby might think he meant the weather.
Next door, she’s been up all night
with her newborn tornado siren
fruitlessly singing lullabies off key.
Six cups of coffee
keep her from collapsing
into a pile of ***** laundry.
She thinks about herself as a kid.
Thinks about how she used to like to
walk with her eyes closed.
How she used to like the thrill of it
the uncertainty and doubt of it.
This is like that. She tells herself.
She almost believes it.