Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Species

So tell me, what do you make of this poem that I wrote after a walk this afternoon in Omaha's beautiful Lauritzen Gardens?



IDENTIFYING THE SPECIES

Strolling the wintery Gardens, 
its long silent lanes sunny but cool 
I watched a single hardy person
enter my lane a length ahead.

Hooded jacket, jeans, sneakers.
Male, I thought, but then I noticed
those sneakers, so clean, so white
they shone like new. Female.

I picked up speed to pass him/her
get a good look, but just as I did
he/she turned down a minor path.
Although tempted, I didn't follow.

Halfway up my finishing hill 
I stopped to catch breath, turned
And spotted he/she way behind me.
Frontal view. Bibbed hat. Male.

But when I paused to quaff water
the blue-garbed person walked
right by me: glossy red lips, 
big smile, wrinkled face. Female.

When she strode on, I never
thought I'd see her again,
but I did. She trudged home
as I drove by. Hood down,

her crest of dark brown hair
visible, her ruby lips radiant.
Homo sapiens femina
straining to pass for forty.



No comments:

Post a Comment