Memorial Day

Music,
feet up,
must remember-
water garden
tonite.

It's hazy.

A south wind
sends flags
sideways,
the desired
effect.

In my notebook
I've drawn
a flag,
a flower,
a reminder.

Challenge

There's a broad blank cement wall

where the freight trains are elevated.

It runs from Cedar west to the old depot.

You know the place-

behind the post office that's now a bank,

by the parking lot that used to be a bowling alley,

beneath the shadow of the chemical plant.

Anyway, there's this broad blank cement wall there

that is desperate for beautification

at the hands of a poet or urban artist.

Not An Inside Joke Exactly

                                                            for Mandy

This morning the air was cool, humid.

As the sun rose,
a cloud drifted to obscure it
creating a celestial moment.

I had the windows down and an elbow out.

Bowie's Life On Mars? came on.
I turned up the radio
and thought of you.

This lifted a smile
on one side of my face,
as if it's an inside joke
you like that song.

Because I know these things,
you can be with me while you're elsewhere
and I can wear my smirk as if
I have gotten away with something.