Around the Corner

A man pulls an orange cat

In a wagon along the curb.

Garbage is their grocery and as they depart

The courtyards and dumpsters the orange cat

Meows a poem about a calf

And a crippled peasant who walk

Slowly through the autumn mist

That hides the dwellings of the poor.

And as they go, the man adds his verse

About a ring and a broken heart.

Autumn, autumn,

Summer has gone.

Two silhouettes

Pass in the mist.

“Around the Corner” is from Backwards Days (Penguin, October 2007).