red light

Thursday, April 17, 2008


red light



we ate good Greek food.

we talked about her day and her

friends and her dreams of culinary school.

we sat next to the kitchen

listening to the women in handkerchiefs

talk amongst themselves.

the waitress efficiently cleared our table

mothered her toddler and confirmed our suspicions

regarding the ingredients in our desserts.

as we walked the two blocks back to our car

she pointed out the red jacket men

who patrol the downtown area

and sang the song

she and her friends made up about them.

she showed me the mural

in the alley she cuts through to get to the bus stop

the dress shop she wants to look at

sometime when its open and also

the place where she once saw

a raccoon die- yes

she did cry describing

the frantic phone calls she made asking all the

appropriate public services

to help it

and how she sat there

for two hours after her friends left

waiting

and no one came

and it died

she saw its chest move

and then stop

down just there beside those rocks

in a pit behind the fence

she couldnt climb.

wrapped around by the wind

we walked past this place.

we walked by the charter school

she wants so desparately

to convince me to let her transfer to-

she says

less bad kids go there than where

shes at now and the teachers give detention

if they see students smoking.

we went into the artist co-op / whatnot next to it.

with five dollars we bought exactly

three mismatching gloves

one silver purse

two fuzzy ended muppet lookin boot covers

and a medium sized camara bag.

we made plans to come back next thursday for

open art night.

on the way home

we called grandma and grandpa

and for once left messages on both cell phones

and giggled about

how long it will take them

to figure out what to do about that-

and then in the car

waiting the light to grant safe passage

she said

the only ineffective parent she had

was the dead one.