Two More Octets

killingsworth st octet #2


stroller hitched to a bike flies green & pink gauze
banners outside the music school—blue red green

neon balloons light up a florist’s windows;
carpets piled askew in a halal market

by the one shopping cart—the pho restaurant’s
lucky bamboo thrives in a water pitcher—

blue mattress collapsing against a streetlamp:
oak leaves rot on pavement; no oaks in sight


◦    ◦    ◦


b-loop streetcar octet #1
(Burnside to 2nd)

red shopping cart stocked with two empty beer cans,
a candy bar wrapper, birch leaves just as brown—

next stop nobody exits; a gust lifts leaves
counter to the blue wheelchair sign’s white arrow

aimed north—a small tweed suitcase forsaken in
gas station lights glowing primary colors—

impassive white brick building tinged stoplight red;
doors glide open, the white-bearded image shifts


Jack Hayes
© 2016


12/2/16-12/5/16