Yesterday When I Was Minding My Own Business
In the parking lot,
A silver balloon
Tied to a dump truck filled with dirt.
I stare.
Imagine the situation.
Whose is this? And why?
My heart reaches toward it,
becomes attached.
In the parking lot,
My grocery list
Written the back of a bank receipt.
I stare.
What have I forgotten?
Above me, the silver balloon floats away.
It catches my eye.
I wonder who will miss it.
In the parking lot
A man in the car diagonal
Watches me watch the balloon.
He stares.
Why does she not look away?
He doesn’t understand.
I cannot.
I cannot.
14 thoughts on "Yesterday When I Was Minding My Own Business"
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beautifully captures moments
Thank you!
This poem is beautifully minimalistic. You can really see, care about that feel that balloon.
Thank you Linda, I’m glad that came through
Something about the way you shaped this creates a curiously, mysteriously magic and intangible, yet heavy, feeling. It nearly feels American Gothic in that way.
Now I want to write an Americn Gothic on purpose! Thanks for this Joseph
In the parking lot,
My grocery list
Written the back of a bank receipt.
Love the rhythm, the implication I see of paycheck to paycheck life here, and omission of the preposition. The segment just jars.
The repetition of the word STARE. Given the title, Jane, there is a strange juxtaposition. The voice of the poem, is not perfectly minding her own business. She’s very much minding the balloon! I love this.
Oh you see more than I mean to show! She is definitely minding the balloon. (And anything else she can find)
A whole novel in this little poem
Thank you! I was thinking today I might work her into a story
I like the artful way you connected the balloon to the grocery list.
Thank you Harold
So strongly you capture the importance of our catching a poem in mid-air- – this could have slipped away and we would have never seen the unfolding of a special moment.
Thank you – I started this poem on the back of another bank receipt!