Fortune [The neighbors will soon spread their confounding potluck before you.]
By Dobby Gibson
The neighbors will soon spread their confounding potluck before you.
Dressed in period garb, they wear sandals with socks.
They subscribe to Life magazine to experience
the present as if it were already the past.
Their flowering trees were engineered to never drop fruit.
Overhead, constellations of stickers glow from bedroom
ceilings as souvenirs from a time when life was lived outdoors.
All conversations end in silence. The trick is to make it purposeful.
It’s not going to get any easier, for these are the CliffsNotes.
Copyright Credit: Dobby Gibson, “Fortune [The neighbors will soon spread their confounding potluck before you.]” from Skirmish. Copyright © 2009 by Dobby Gibson. Reprinted by permission of Graywolf Press, www.graywolfpress.org
Source: Skirmish (Graywolf Press, 2009)