- Keith Banner
Vista
there's this secret
sidewalk
connecting newgate with norbourne
smaller than other sidewalks
a shortcut
to the elementary school
that looks like it was
built in the late 60s or early 70s
reflecting
civil unrest
no windows
concrete and blank brick
a sort of
makeshift mote around it
you take the secret sidewalk
to get there
and I take it
daily
just to see the vista
between neighborhoods
backyards
for days
rotting sheds and cockeyed
fences
aluminum siding
and aluminum siding
places where
people broke their arms
an old motorboat
stubborn, goat-like
remembering
when somebody lost his shit
and
drowned
in the middle of
the secret sidewalk
everything
is beautiful
you just
have to stop
sunlight shiny
as a silverware drawer
grass sparkling
meanly
weeds
tucked into one another
total quiet
this place
here where no one
knows you
and then you
don't know yourself
