Free verse № 137004
Jailbird
While you were Inside
I paced the street in front of your cell
in my housecoat. I redecorated,
took up smoking and quit,
drove out by the work crews on 240
saying, that one looks just like you
would if you were black.
I made acquaintances, other
wives and husbands with
wives and husbands In:
Glen was nice, Darlene a bitch.
I walked past the jail
up State Street where storefronts,
cafes, had folks dressed in cardigans
with cappuccinos, doing a dance
of Getting-By, of Moving,
always moving. And you were Inside,
writing your memoir in
glaring inconsistencies. Oh, while you
were Away, I watered the plants, considered
redecorating, maybe moving Upstate.
I waited. I plotted. I baked
you a birthday cake once
with a file in it
and detailed instructions
for hanging.
9 comments
Jails are seldom on main streets (other than holding cells in police stations)--even county jails are behind gates and wires and fences, so there'd be no storefronts, generally, and no sidewalks to pace. Am I taking this way more literally than you mean it? I sometimes do that; miss the metaphor.
This is my message to her:
Sure he's exceptionally smart and inciteful but like me he's a man and will eventually shoot himself in the foot. Please Mrs. Z, if you can, make as many of his decisions for him as possible.
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