SCROLLER.
December as is such an evening, not enough
rain as to umbrella,
“Your 40% Off Coupon Expires Tomorrow!”
notified upon resurfacing from subway at Fairmount
with my all turned south along Broad, into the oncoming
composition—DO NOT STEP:
Those of the forward growling their intentions as three lanes
of lit and beam scratched in drizzle, the ethereal
engines of all those traveling on to whatever else comes
next, nights as they do, and as
this one summons in a screen-like feed of commuters
scrolling past,
a yellow Chevy with tinted windows bleeds a ’70s beat
while I linger in the reflective, developing wet and
wait to read the intersection safe,
hoping that what I’m feeling in the corner of my mouth
is not another cold sore.
*
Paul Siegell’s most recent books are The Tongue They Shared (Moonstone Press, 2021) and Take Out Delivery (Spuyten Duyvil, 2018). He was Pennsylvania’s 2021 Montgomery County Poet Laureate.
