The Shortcut
snaked through a patch
of maples that sliced
the trek to Main Street
in half & placed them
in the alley behind McBride’s
Office Supplies Etc. where a rusted
yellow dumpster often stuffed
with collapsed cardboard & broken
chards of decor — the lavender
wing of a porcelain archangel, punctured
tubes of acrylics in combat
green & indigo — beckoned
with their off-key chorus
of throwaways and forgotten
abouts. On Friday night
she’d uncork a half gallon bottle
of Almaden & by Saturday
night sneak to Bud’s Beverage World
at 11 pm for more. She reached meltdown,
a can’t-turn-back
point when she’d split into flying
fragments some of which
were infused with indiscriminate
animosity. Diatribes. Detonations. Black
outs. I’ll drive this rattrap straight
into the Kankakee River, then
you’ll be sorry, she snarled. I’d leave
the house with a hidden hot
splinter of her in me. Fifteen
& undefended, except
for the option of weekend
escape, I’d dart
for the shortcut, where October
maples shift to crimson. My Red Wing
boots thud on the beaten-down
path & I toss myself like a scrap
of mirror into the broken
opportunity of the alley, the bright
anarchy of the dumpster.
9 thoughts on "The Shortcut"
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
“… I’d leave
the house with a hidden hot
splinter of her in me …”
Yeah. Great line at the heart of the poem.
Kevin
same as Kevin. so many lovely images, vivid descriptions otherwise. I love the bookended feel of this piece. Its as if it begins innocently enough, innocence is ripped away, relief is sought.
i like so much about this.
esp the high/low of a dumpster angel and boots soles on the ground.
Nothing to add, only to say I agree with all!
This is powerful, Linda, and I love so much about it.: the turn from she to I and my favorite image: the “off-key chorus/ of throwaways and forgottenabouts.” Thanks for sharing.
Love the stream of consciousness!
Yes, agreed especially with dogtrax and Manny.
this is one fierce poem. I especially love the oxymoronic ending: “broken/ opportunity” and “bright/anarchy”
Beautiful work. I really enjoyed this.