Eighteen

Familiar quiet plops itself Upon our civic afternoon Reach down to fetch a lemonade From the porch's knotty, cork-filled grin Kitty darts across my lawn In plain pursuit of nothing A gleam from the Edsel slips right by As an acorn dives into the freshly paved parkway Johnny sits upon a curb Watching leaf canoes drift by And off, somewhere, a mockingbird Celebrates the clearing sky School bus pulls up and sighs relief Another demon gone And Johnny's day is a little brighter Skip on home with the big kids, John! Wake up to screams of neighbors' kids And mouth is mighty dry A fresh new patch of piercing green Brings landlord into mind Add a hole to this old house The flies have got to go Across the way a mother cries Around her men in black take notes