Panic is not an effective, long-term organizing strategy.
~ Starhawk
ONCE AGAIN THE OLD URGE TO BE ALONE IN A CAR
NO MATTER WHERE THE LOCAL ROADS ARE GOING
Sick of their own vocabularies and the mud it brings in--
to avoid all talk whenever possible
to avoid the unfortunately balding Englishwoman
to stand in one slow spot to watch the world crawl or limp along--
to be unsentimental about the mutt tethered to rubble
and the crush of birds in the wire basket--
ashamed of her pleasure in being here--to be ashamed
is to be the American--to watch a worn-out man over a Singer
stitch up a pair of worn-out pants--threading along
shelves stocked with goods nobody wants--
to avoid standing water and fumes
from worn-out vehicles--to order carefully
off the menu--to ride in silence on the bus
rumbling down service roads back to the hotel--
to leave the boy aiming his uninhibited lens--to be lost
among the indifferent palms with a tropical drink
to be watched by an anole on the ornamental iron
to stand in one slow spot watching two scorpions
doing the merengue; to fasten a strand of larimar
to her ankle--once more the old urge
to be alone in a rented car--saltwater-stripped hair
wind-buffed shoulders--waking up in the full sun
missing everyone--minimally deluded
it would all stop--mercy out of nowhere like a wave
in the face of an old friend she hasn't seen in years
yelling on television in the open-air lobby
his subtitled expletive: For Christ's sake: Hold your fire!
— C.D. Wright
Uni-verse
