petite build, rugged, compact
taking up no more space than necessary:
    
     stainless steel coffee mug
     snow pony tail, plain sweatshirt
     jeans, John Lennon’s round specs

sitting opposite me every day at the Peace Tree Café
middle of nowhere Southern Utah, the two of us
the most regular of regulars.

weekends selling flotsam outside Jim’s Trading Post,
scrounging the property taxes on his plot of pinyon pine.
i'd keep him company, consider each item
with solemn regard, unsure whether I was holding
a tractor part or a rusty time machine.

what’s this do, Peewee?
you should really keep this saw.
how much for these earrings?

gone now:

i wear his dead wife’s Celtic earrings
and think of us drinking coffee
laughing wildly, scaring the tourists.