Traces of Differences by Mike Garofalo

 4089.

The time of a claim
Is evidence
Of the claim's truth.
"It was raining"
depends on the day.

 

4090.

Bus Stop Mumbling

a.

a bench holds these
unwritten verbs:
sitting, waiting, holding

b.

cars buzz by the bus stop
two men sit in silence
at the intersection
of waiting and transit

c.

standing at the curb
looking for the green bus
each of us
holding a private memory
of seconds

d.

an electric bike
zips by
silently---
cars roar gasoline

e.

Define: arrival
Define: the space between
here and not-yet-here...
The green bus stopped there!

 

4091.

23C is Perfect for Me

20F = -7C
32F = 0C
40F = 4C
50F = 10C
60F = 15C

70F = 21C
80F = 26C
90F = 32C
100F = 38C
110F = 44C

 

4092.

Air passes before the sun but casts no shadow.
Computers prefer Macintosh apples.
Mathematicians vacation in Times Square.
The evil hen laid deviled eggs.
It would be pointless to use a broken pencil.

 

4093.

Traces of Differences

The square clock counts the taxes of currency, paid to present time.
I tally up the closing years and face the final fee of time.

I cannot find a hitching post to hold the passing days,
The weightless traces of the past are the no-thing marks of ways.

A shredded snake skin curled on the trail is what was left behind,
The fading marks of where we walked become the tracks of time.

An eagle will dive, the wind will blow, and granite will slowly break,
The shifting ways that things interact reveal their intertwining fates.

The chessboard patterns change their shape with every moving hand.
We speak of traces that show our interwoven fates in disappearing land.

 

4094.

because
                            beleagured beings
became                   beligerent
                  bestiality          began