Two Octets from the North End

albina ave octet #2

variegated yucca in umber earth;
behind maiden grass, an upturned stainless steel

bowl—black umbrellas above picnic tables
some folded some open in this silver mist—

amber lights strung between two posts shine only
as an afterthought on an ashgray Monday

afternoon—passersby appear to sleepwalk:
as if you’d never passed here, even once

◦    ◦    ◦


fremont st octet


a scrub jay’s unanswered screech from a side street;
dry leaves whispered skitter across dry pavement—

the mind so rarely quiet, chest constricted:
dyspnea & fret; the 4-line bus heaves its

inexorable northward groan past plastic
swan & angels overturned across the lawn’s

uncombed hair; beyond vine tangled chain link fence
sunflower seed heads shrink black—the gate padlocked



Jack Hayes
© 2016


 11/4/16