Plain Margins

Photographer - Tobi Brun

Plain Margins

Lenten rose closes its shutters like waves
of yellow bikes tipping one onto the next
by the bookstore, where he shifts his eyes
from you to the garbage—ignoring you
like landmines ready to trip him up along
the street of your face that, he thinks, falls
toward the low end of redbuds under sugar
maples, gazebo of cellar doors; neighbors
who don’t look at you or walk on your side
of the street—little topiaries before dogs
bark nonsense; cats of Saturday morning
cartoons, children walking fog-like, as baker
opens his Little Library by the park vines,
good morning only for morning glories—
admiration comes from bees, coneflowers,
for whom you would give away all your
garden for a margin you could call plain.

Jan Wiezorek writes from Michigan. His work appears, or is forthcoming, in The London Magazine, The Westchester Review, Lucky Jefferson, Loch Raven Review, Minetta Review, Talon Review, Modern Poetry Review, The Passionfruit Review, Sparks of Calliope, The Wise Owl, Poetry Center San José, and The Orchards Poetry Journal, among other journals. He taught writing at St. Augustine College, Chicago, and wrote the ebook Awesome Art Projects That Spark Super Writing (Scholastic, 2011). He posts at janwiezorek.substack.com.