Morning in the Burbs
But God, I love the cul-de-sac
at seven a.m., I can’t help it!
This wind-streaming-between-
grass-blades point of view!
But this punctuated lawn
I stand upon! The family
of shrubs, flat-topped & shaped
into a question mark:
the eye of its mouth, my favorite
standing place. A painter’s steel
scaffold: against the neighbor’s
gutter like a concert glockenspiel.
The souped-up air conditioning:
in monk octaves. The sheer
wash of it all, water rushing
from a bucket: A man soaping
down his Saab, tie sly tucked.
Two cable guys sharing a joint
in a horseshoe drive: But God,
I envy their temporary sweet spot:
snippet of carefree chummery.
This mum machine hard at work
before work. The: The nothing
getting in. The nothing getting out:
From Silencer (Mariner Books, 2017). Copyright © 2017 by Marcus Wicker. Used with permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.