neighbor

neighbor
for Street Psalms: between rocks and hard places

The city rock collection: an installation
(boulders in a nest of rosebushes and thorn shrub)
appears in the usual grassy patches
once held down by crows and cackling human bodies
fidgeting with rolling papers and radio dials,
(w)rapping in the respite of sunshine and branches.
The silhouette an echo of Cascadian skyline
(falling and rising) in curves
and points
at flashes of mockery:::
a landscape crushed by the albatross landing of
stones thrown at the already stoned.

A traveling carnival of attempt interrupts
the green horizon in tragic monument to misspent intent.

From amidst the parable of bramble
on edge
rises
an idea:
We are all
rolling and smoking and high
looking down on smokestack and barge--
the whole story tells itself--
our reflection in the signs of the deaf
economy, an unyielding and aloof parabola
obvious in the geography of rocks and hard won graces.