Equinox 2005
The new mail carrier, disregarding regulations,
Litters the sidewalk with rubber bands
As each bundle is unpacked and at first,
It being that time of year, I mistake them
For angle worms, but I pick them up despite
My stiffness in my seventy-first year because
I recall the scrap rubber drives and the absence
Of bubble gum during World War Two and
Black marks on gym floors from bad synthetics
After the Japanese unexpectedly bicycled
Down the Malay Peninsula to take Singapore;
So I am “an old man bending” thankfully not over
Wounded boys but merely impelled by thrift
And memories of a time when gasoline was twenty
Cents per gallon. It is now more than ten times
That and still going up while boys no older
Than my oldest grandchild are blown apart
Nearly every day. I look at the power-packed
Ugly boxes of my neighbors’ SUVs and wonder
Why some lessons take so much longer than
One old man’s lifetime to be driven home.
--J. Quinn Brisben
20 MAR 2005
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