If You Break Down While Driving.

If you break down on a road
late at night
there will be no fast-forward button.

So think to yourself
that nights are fast
that many have gone
you don't remember most.

That a night is a unit,
one block of time.
It will go by
As a night shift moves swiftly as you work.

But nothing will keep you busy
as you lie in the back
with the doors locked.

And if you break down on a road
you'll have to spend each minute waiting
for a truck or a friend or passerby
or someone who can put an end to your continuous string of minutes.

Black Friday.

Place is everything.
Some people count out their exact place,
others estimate.
They call home on their cell phones,
"I'm number 58."

On my way over here
I was not thinking about a computer.
Somehow it would be OK
if I were number 1 and missed the deal
instead of a number 58,
cold and shivering.

Sitting Behind Her at the Cafe.

Wretched cotton
clean and
carefree, innocent, naive,
no--
just plain ignorant.
No brain at all!

Whimsical folds gathering at the small of her back,
(perfectly postured)
the epitome of waste,
unaware of the gold within the strands that caress,
the ungrateful incarnated to infinity.
You fool.

In a Coffee Shop in Collingswood.

A puppy smiled and wagged past me
once, when I was young.
Proceeding on, concerned only
with other bodies of interest.