Page 61 - The Woven Tale Press Vol. IV #9
P. 61
and equipment men in overalls knew how to handle.
I fell in love with the blue collar of cities—What it took
to make things happen behind-the-scenes
for stars to come out, coffee breaks,
roach coaches,
deliveries and pickups, and all the gravelly curses that made a day go by
inside fans of corrugated aluminum siding
wrapped around a city block cooling its heels
against the whine of heavy metal,
almost like the Fruitvale mudflats, places that stink of low tide, spangles of window glass
on sidewalks
bequeathed by minor gods of the neighborhood
on their way to the courthouse at the outreach edges
where rules
are broken and ignored,
for this is an in-between place
that doesn’t attract attention unless there’s a hip bar or club, or a politician stumping for votes, people who go about the business of eating, sleeping, breathing
and making their own peace.
Weiss is enrolled in an MFA program
at San Francisco State University. Her books include Cutting Down the Last Tree on Easter Island (West End Press, 2012), and Two Places (Kelsay Books, 2014).
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