Loaded+Moments+Examples

= 405 Indian Ridge Trail =

I stand at the blacktop edges watching lawnmowers slice blades that form yard lines in the late afternoon dew

In the distance fast food signs glow like coals above the cul-de-sacs and blueprint streets

She, inside I’m outside

Understanding a moment that won’t ever pass

= The Shrinking Sky =

In the parking lot at St. Anthony’s

on a summer night

when the lights of the creaking

ferris wheel were pale

in the purple dusk of a sky as wide

as it was ever going to be,

I threw a ping pong ball

into a pickle jar

and won a goldfish.

Lately, I’ve noticed

the sky,

how it’s shrinking…

= Bullfrogs =

sipping a Schlitz

we cut off the legs

packed them in ice, then

shucked the rest back into

the pond for turtles

ready to go home

we looked down and saw

what we had thrown back in:

quiet-bulging eyes nudging along

the moss’s edge, looking up at us,

asking for their legs = Indiglo =

we are sitting

watching voices wearing

tight black pants and cut up black shirts.

We hold hands in the dark.

Neon green lights,

where hands run in circles,

spotlighting the moon dipping on her face.

Her dimple surfaces

from her soft skin when I ask,

“What color is a burp?”

“Burple.”

Her dimple smiles back at me.