Image Poem #27
by Norman J. Olson

    A row of automobiles
    lined up in the twilight
    like red speckles
    on the blacktop. Imaginary
    palm trees wrinkled in my
    fingers
    as the light from unseen candles
    burned me. My eyeballs
    rolled across the dusty, tessellated floor
    as I sat in the food court remembering
    the traffic, sipping diet soda through a
    red-striped straw.

    Caught in their shining carapaces
    in petroleum fumes and
    gridlock, the human
    beings melted
    back into mud. Road raging palm
    trees gripped the steering
    wheels as swallows
    swooped unseen
    in the green, uneven light.






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