Let me set the stage
very early Friday morning
just starting to get light
street cleaner making passes beneath us
to prepare for Friday Night Live
55 degrees outside, cloudy,
mourning dove on sill
flies, startled by me,
across the street to a tree
in front of the now vacant
recall office
I ascend a little ladder
a kitchen folding device
to get high enough to
catch the onion-skin picture
taped to the window
a likeness of Dee taken
at People's Park one recent
evening
The way I positioned the picture
she appears to be studying
the beveled glass cross
that hangs in the window
the sun brushes through clouds
in the breaking eastern sky;
I've flicked on our electric
window candle
to answer waitress Pam
across the street at Dave's
we too are open
at the Odd Fellows
Some may wonder what
the yellow wedge-shaped thing is
in the taped transparent picture
that from the street just looks
like a sheet of white paper
stuck to our particular pane
A glass of water sat before me
with a lemon wedge
it's Dee's water actually
and it could be said
that with me
she got a lemon.......
but she always looks up and beyond
such facts or interpretations
and the passers-by below
when they arrive in droves
tonight at dusk
and the music rushes in
cacophonous
cacophonous
from the many street bands,
and the crushing crowds
peer past that sheet
if they look up at us at all
looking down at them
will pay note of
our electrified
stuffed fox
and wonder what
goes on up there
- so many windows
so many questions -
goes on up there
- so many windows
so many questions -
