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2022 Dan Liberthson Poetry Prize

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walks without money: walks at home

by Katie Naughton

 

walks without money: walks at homethe tapestry old wall paper or large framed print in the lighted window of the house across the street second floor empty bookcase in the room the light on curtains drawnthe neighbor’s Newfoundland-St. Bernard puppy growing larger all wintermy friends posting snow and frozen lakes in Vermont on the internetour neighbor getting in the car with his son who stays there some days walking his dog another dog holding a new woman’s hand her holding the dog a link a chain of holding onthe lights of the firetruck the ambulance blocking the intersection the crowd gathering on the sidewalk bending over some figure on the ground the minivan run oddly up onto the sidewalk understanding the hollow crash of a few minutes beforeour neighbors snowblowing our sidewalk, picking up after other peoples’ dogs waving at me 10:30 at night through the window where I sit typingwe’re moving the dishwasher out to the backseat of the car to bring to be fixed our neighbor asks us if we need help someone stops their car to ask if we need helpnever having been in the other apartments in our housegoing into the backyard for the first time to sit with our neighbors before they get the dog and them coming to sit with us on our porch coming through our apartment to get there when he is a small soft puppythe painted over Sealtest ice cream signs on the closed storefront on the opposite corner the dumpster outside one weekend and everything all the glass in the shop cleared out shattered on the streetground into glitter for weeks after the dumpster’s gonesmelling other peoples’ dinner laundry detergent cigarette smoke in the hallwaythe shared basement with erratic uneven cement floors and everyone’s extra stuff an empty linoleum room with a small high windowhaving never gone to the second or third floors a mass of wood and plaster and other peoples’ things and space held there directly above me all day for yearstelevision the history of watching it family parties and New York where I was where I am now





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