Pencil love
before I saw Flairs
as a child
yellow sticks
smudgy hands
scratching cars and dinosaurs
on plain white paper

In my small town supermarket
they have a soup bar.
It's self-serve
and they allow free samples.
But,
Free sample
means samples
as in before you buy soup
so you can try a little sip
to see if you like
the clam chowder,
beef and barley which has too much green pepper,
or squash bisque
before you fill the paper cup
or the larger one
with hot
delicious
soup.

It doesn't mean
"free soup"
to eat while walking
through the store
and not buying any soup
after the sample is gone
and then
as if to add insult
to injury,
leave the empty ramekin
with your sample tailings
on a random shelf,
sometimes even with a little plastic spoon
and a used napkin,
tucked behind a roll of paper towels
or toilet paper
or catfood
on your way out of the store
to stand in the parking lot
and complain to other petty soup thieves
about how "some people"
get stuff
for
free.

If we get
Deep winter snow in March
Was winter "mild"?

Is this worth anything anymore?
does it hold the power it once had?
are they real
or imaginary
are they mine
or Vladimir's?

A small hungry train
mostly on its rails
chugs kind of quietly down the hall
To a midday fuel stop
with
many other trains
and
for each small car
of each train
a small tray
and for every car
it's own seat