Poem for Wednesday and Earlier Canal

From the Canal
By Michael Dickman

Small fistfuls
of green lights hang
from your every
word

An alphabet I can't read

Illiterate
in sunlight

The box turtles stack up one on top of the other like newly minted money balanced above the water

I am so happy
I would like to take some drugs
Some cherry blossoms

Dogwoods

I would like to chop down my shoulders into flowers

A spray of flowers

~

The blue heron looks back one million years from the muddy bank and is ready for liftoff

It lifts off
through a shower curtain
of dragonflies and
pollen

It wants to be alone

It wants to stand on one leg forever

And be a ballerina
in curved space and
a black crown

Everything is so still that I can't breathe

The joggers pound the dirt and will never die

Fish asleep on the bottom
Insects screaming in the trees

~

Gnats rise as one
white-feathered lung
and breathe

They have nowhere to go

Maybe they want to build a little city
inside my chest

Floor after floor
of air-conditioning
and glass

Why do I keep waiting for something to change when I know that nothing will change?

Light crumples
against the hammered brass
heads of the frogs

Two boys carry a snake between them like a live extension cord

-------- 

Tuesday morning and afternoon were pretty quiet after my busy Monday. We knew that the minivan would be retrieved for transport some time in the late afternoon, so we packed everything we don't need with us for the next three days in Maryland or the three following in Washington into boxes and put them in the back of the van, then waited for the transport company to tell us where to drive the van for loading since this suburban street wasn't an option. 

It turned out that the van transport didn't get into the area until nearly 7, and we had to go meet them in Rockville. Half of my Voyager group couldn't get on at the usual time, so we decided to skip this week. So we ate leftovers from our fridge for dinner and now we're watching Ghosted, which is both as bad and as awesome as everyone told me (Evans having a great time and I'd have watched for the cameos alone). Pics from the last time we walked on the canal: