"A Still Life"

A Still Life-


He see's the sight he's always longed for,

"First from his study to the back yard, then from there to his front lawn"

He used to see "salmon tins glinting with silver,

set above hand painted signs instructing purchasers to deposit twenty-five or fifty cents."

now he see's the same colors, the never fading

white

paint of the walls, the

mahagony

of his desk, the

lines

of the paper, and the

blue

smeared ink of his pen.

he used to "meander" instead of run,

he used to cruise through "the suburan labyrinth of cul-de-sacs, bays, and circles, losing and finding himself endlessly,"

and he used to pass by "the houses (that) all face the sun,"

he
longs

for that again.

the "cracked sidewalks and the ridges of stiff grass" call for his return, that return will not likely soon

come

He sits in his office remembering the "fences here (that) are little more than fragments," and "the

police car (that) was concealed in the shadows of a side street," like a panther

stalking it's prey.

and as he feels his "sunglasses" fling from his face from the initial impact and his legs crumple underneath him

He asks,

What would it feel like?

he sits in the chair that has been like a prison since that faithful day, and remembers his last "voluntary movement (below his waist), reaching his hand toward his wallet"

And as he watches the fly dart in and out of his office, he has found what he craves most.




MOVEMENT.