Maybe we can make a deal (Fast Cars, Pt 3)

When you're a man and pull your hair behind your ears
and tie it in a ponytail
that's called a compromise

when you want talk
when it's over
they call that bargaining
which is part of grieving

when you look people in the eye
when you're walking
that's bold
or daring
no matter how you are appealing

when you ask yourself
what makes a metal
it's the ability
to be flattened into sheets
and drawn into wires
as every jeweller knows

when you are walking in the wildflowers
try not to remember
you don't find roses growing on stalks of clover

however much you like the tune

when you wear slippers

don't trip on the frills

or be caught sporting mutton sleeves

or poodle wrists

or mules

and when you drive

don't forget

to make a deal

I can't remember

which is ritzier

Buick or Chevrolet

but Cadillac is the best

and everything else is bargaining

to get more for your money

than the next guy paid

stand your ground
make space for yourself
remember you've got nothing to prove
take your place
and fake it 'til you make it

don't hunch
or apologize
even if you can't make a decision
make racing changes
until the engine makes you shift.

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Things always end in the Summer

In the middle of the second major heatwave of the season, the City cut the wildflowers along the footpath. I mean they cut everything 30 inches on either side of the pavement, but since the flowers were my friends, all I saw was that they cut the flowers, even though they actually mowed indiscriminately. And it must have been a chore for the labourer in this heat, so his feet were heavy when he made hay of the prettiest parts of the Summer. But I can't get to that right now; I'm still reeling from the loss of chicory, and the other pinks and yellows and blues whose names I was just beginning to learn. "Program, get your program", I heard the barker call on my way to the bleachers. I turned once and caught his eye, and looked at the program in his hand and back into his eyes--all the while his eyes following mine--but then he looked back to his hand, and again into my eyes and he said "You can't tell the player without a card"! Did it matter that ...

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We're past that now

First to arrive and last to leave the robins make you think you're in for an Indian Summer but I believe we're past that now still it was nice to see a group of four splashing in a puddle on the driveway when leaves have already been raked and first frost settling in to nightly routine unlike the English robin these are apparently a species of thrush still dainty in their own way their russet breasts matching the pumpkins on the steps I had a silly thought perhaps with their entreating chirps they were trick or treating perhaps they were old residents of the street come back in disguise to tease and remind us they're still here though much changed and diminished in size but tall yet in spirit as they tugged at the lawn for worms or whatever was going when life was already draining from the trees and the whispers of the dawn.

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