Dan
Disheveled, soiled, stinking
he paces 2nd street
around the closed foundry,
counts the splotches,
avoids the curb for 26 steps.
Slumping shoulders,
the world in his head turning,
his mind connected to fibers
that speak from beyond,
whirring, hear the hum?
You don’t know
and never will know
what he knows.
Loo of Loo’s Chinese and American Cuisine
puts a small white box
of likely leftovers behind the dumpster
with a plastic fork stuck in the handle
where if it’s eaten or not
can easily be tossed.
Loo watches, sometimes.
Dan will pick up the box
smell it, put it down,
walk around the block,
come back, pick it up
and sometimes he eats.
The last of the dishes
roll out of the washer.
Dan turns around 3 times
testing the fibers for true south.
Gary Lark’s most recent collection is “Ordinary Gravity,” Airlie Press. Other work includes, “River of Solace,” Editor’s Choice Chapbook Award from Turtle Island Quarterly, Flowstone Press; “In the House of Memory,” BatCat Press; “Without a Map,” Wellstone Press; “Getting By,” winner of the Holland Prize from Logan House Press. His poetry has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Catamaran, Willawaw, Poet Lore, ZYZZYVA and others.
