The Let's Have a Cigarette and Assess the Situation (Extended Stay Motel)
In order to assess the situation,
a good wall is necessary
for strategic leaning
and contemplative exhalations
cast in smoke.
Across the state highway,
the strip mall sits for sale,
its parking lot lamps
empty umbrellas of spit and shine.
In this dead of the country
night, a passing trucker
shifts gears to meet a hill
and the outline of his hat rim,
its rope trim as he drives by,
is too much detail,
liable to make him less
and so much more than
just anonymous.
Out of the distant turnpike din,
an exotic bird squawks
as though being mercilessly
mated or killed
in the stand of skinny trees
by the closed Kum & Go,
but it could be a trap,
a maniac with a recorder,
a brigand baiting the curious.
Neither twenty-four-hour drive-thru
will serve pedestrians.
Very few walls are no good
for leaning on.
Copyright Credit: Katie Hartsock, "The Let’s Have a Cigarette and Assess the Situation (Extended Stay Motel)" from Bed of Impatiens. Copyright © 2016 by Katie Hartsock. Reprinted by permission of Able Muse Press.
Source: Bed of Impatiens (Able Muse Press, 2016)