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Music from the Curb


Rising from the damp ditch of short sleep
acequia lady picks up her traveling mandolin
to accompany the boom box bass on wheels 
passing on the wet street.

 Bus comes by. Push brakes hiss
at the rigid stop sign corner.
Wistful 'o' in the mouth of the bronze
mother in the artist's yard floats as if
a piano in her esophagus is escaping.

 Accordion whistles through car windows.
Down the block, one weary dishwasher
steps out for a smoke. Cheap spoons a-jangle
in his big, damp pockets...





Excerpted from The Shape of Caught Water
available from Red Mountain Press
or directly from the author (505.670.4327)

http://redmountainpress.us/




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