Turning Back,
I Ran
Exactly
3.60
Miles

Coming
Full
Circle
.
Turning Back,
I Ran
Exactly
3.60
Miles

Coming
Full
Circle
.

I tossed
toiletries
–encased in make-up
kits,
I launched
Kindle books
–enwrapped in pleather pads,
I lobbed
carry on
–complete with shoulder straps,
I threw dirty duds
–drug through endless muck,
I pitched Samsonites
–along with broken wheel
I stole unchecked bags
–grabbed from carousel,
and spinning, I
ex-claimed–
lightened
but laden
(anew)
so chagrinned
to pass through gate,
and different sky
–lacking cap.

Skating across snow-crusted pavement, water skis banging my elbow, I realized the map had been turned upside down—I was heading into Canada, not Mexico—

If I can
chagrin
at myself…
If I can
under
stand tall
–at’all…
If I can
shake hands
off
Sturm
und
Drang…
I can wake
dead to right
‘us,
I can
ghost right
the most harmonious verse,
I can
last rite
of passage
–without end.

After making lots of
dough
I had bread,
and as I was the Biggest Cheese,
cheddar also abounded
–not to get all up in your grill about it, but
toast to that, right?
–down the old gullet
and with lettuce to spare,
I brought home the bacon,
–a task I didn’t relish, so
things got a bit dry
from there,
though the club
I founded subsequently
was no turkey.
just gravy
No tomatoes, either,
because who can afford seed?

If I hadn’ta left the beach early. . .
feelin’ like grit
an’ if I’da bypassed Uptown Gym
for more familiar territory. . .
an’ if I didn’ta go
impulsive-like
to check on that job I know I’ll forego
good busywork in lieu of
an’ if I’da been rigid
like I said I would be. . .
an’ skipped Gelson’s sriracha wings
–an’ guilty!
Gone on to Vons for sundries,
an’ smokes
I’d hate myself for
only to bump into seXe Dave
or was it vice-revers’a?
an’ chat just exactly
long enough to decide against death
an’ feel attractive again
that Dave knows how to do that
then I never woulda
got home when I did. . .
to discover that terrified bunny baby
soaked from days of storm
a sittin’ duck
on our patio built for killin’
a mouse for cat
just waitin’ to get picked off.
An’ that bon-bon size
bun-bun
was too easy to catch
even fer me
after tossed wheat Chex went ignored
an’ reachin’ into the inadequate cover he’d assumed,
I took the shiverin’ bun•let to Wildlife Care
inna carrier that’ll take the edge off vet trips, now
–assurin’ him alla way
he’d be warm,
an’ he’d be fed,
an’ he’d be safe,
tellin’ him I knew it didn’t feel like it, now
fer me either
but he was gonna make it out alive
stronger
–restored,
an’ all growed up
. . .
an’ still
so close to home.

I am the K
in capable,
the A
in A-1,
the Rrrr
that shivers yer timbers. . .
the I
that’s write
in center of storm,
to the
N th degree
–a variable.