observations through a window |
I From my corner of the couch, outside is just a twist and a crick of the neck away. I turn around and search the window for a sampling of the backyard. II The screen: a wire mesh drawn tight dividing the view into tiny windows. Pixilation. III A spider’s web: curving across the window in concentric silk rings waving gently in the wind’s breath sagging at the bottom beneath the bloated weight of a soon to be meal. IV A single remaining section of wrought iron fence: rusted red and black ornamental ironwork unbent— swirling a mirrored fleur de lis to mark where the gate once was. V A log: split by sure axe strokes but each splinter now weathered brown and grey, angled as though it wishes to fall. VI A bullfrog: squat and warted, hops from behind the wood pile, stares at the window for a long pause disappears into the pond. VII A single ornamental river reed: rises from a tangled mass of his dead brothers, towering tall, slender, and green crowned by seeds feathering out, like the plume on a drum major’s helmet. VIII A dead vine: hanging past the window brown and green and grey. no leaves— just curlicues of tendrils marking where they used to be. IX A stray cat: black, crouches on the lip of the ornamental pool repositions, crouches lower— flummoxed by the water he stands and stalks away to wash up. X A stone turtle: moss stains white marble green where a chisel etched out the lines that divide its plates. XI A robin: flashes red, almost too quick for my eye to catch, flits from a bush and confronts the cat before disappearing again. XII Too much lies past the surface. my brother had just flushed the toilet when a tree crashed over the fence to fill the yard; he blamed himself. my sister carved the turtle and left it but cannot escape it; we give her turtles every year. the poison ivy vine catches my father as he works wearing away the skin on his arms until they are raw and oozing— each image overflows with story. As I turn my back and write, my shoulders itch at the memory living behind my back. Prompt ▼ |