An echo
seems like
your best
friend until she
betrays you.

That's because
she's different
from everything
else around you...

She is always
listening. Sending
what you say
back to you...

But, she sits in
judgment &
will do the
same for just
about anyone.

She buys a
recipe magazine
at the register
of her local
supermarket
and fogs the
windows
reading it
in the car.

Then marches
back into the
store to acquire
the ingredients
& returns home
to prepare the
meal and eat it
alone to the
nightly news.

She lost her
husband in
Quang Ngai
Provence
fifty years
ago.

Now, a
lifetime,
another
husband
and two
children
later, in
retirement
she pushes
a coffee
cart and
makes small
talk at a
local VA
hospital—
her way
of giving
back.

O how the world laughed.
O how the world gasped.

But with wheels
instead of feet
Handle roared
around buildings
& leapt four
feet high.

And did
pirouettes
because, hey,
why not?

His Maker
took Natural
Selection—
human form—
turned
it on its ear.
Turned Handle
into a modern
chimera.

O what a marvel!

She delivers
guacamole
from an old
beater cop
car daily.

Dead head-
lamps and
missing
hub caps.

Spinning
from café
to deli to
restaurant
with tubs
of her dip.

Recently split,
her old man
left her for a
road worker—
one of the
ones who
flag you.

Now she’s
alone with
just her
avocados
and this
old B&W
prowler.