LEE EVANS lives in Bath, Maine after having retired from the Maryland State Archives and the Bath YMCA. He has self-published thirteen books of poetry which are available on Amazon and Lulu.com

SIGNATURE REQUIRED

My van is parked idling in your driveway,

To keep the heater running and protect

Its fragile cargo from the winter wind.

I step up to your door and sharply rap

With one hand, holding gently in the other

The Valentine’s bouquet your lover bought

By phoning up his local florist shop.

You hesitate and wonder who it is.

While waiting patiently as you peek through

The curtains (it’s a dangerous neighborhood),

I count the fragile flowers I have brought:

(Sometimes they’re broken in the close-packed truck)

One dozen long stemmed roses in a vase.

Red petals, fresh, naively innocent,

Nestled in fern dotted with Baby’s Breath

And framed with purple status. So lovely,

Yet soon to lose their bloom in a few days –

To be bagged up and set out on the curb,

Manhandled by the trashman, hauled away.

“Capture the moment.” Customers consent

To our Sales Contract with no guarantee

That moment lasts forever. Never mind,

Let’s take our contracts with a grain of salt,

Our flowers with the atmosphere they breathe.

Look at these snowflakes as they freeze and cling

To the crimson petals and the Baker’s fern!

I wonder if you know what you sign for

When you scribble your name on my clipboard?

Well, I’m not employed to ask such questions.

Anyway, it’s time for me to hit the road;

There’s not too many hours of daylight left

To gather signatures for these bouquets.

Have a good evening, or what’s left of it.

TIDAL POOL

We gazed into a pool left by the tide;

Crouching together, close enough to see,

Apart enough to share its mystery.

Our dim reflections trembled with the sky,

Where periwinkles crept before our eyes

Beneath the liquid weight of their clear world,

And phytoplankton scurried in the whirl

Of their routines against the flow of time.

It was as though we crouched above ourselves,

And stared straight through our bodies into space

Upwards, towards an element that held

All creatures in the field of its embrace—

All while the waves devoured the shifting shoals

And stony shore alike, as on they rolled.