Tonight’s street theater in rehearsal
around bridge legs, street urchins
encircle a fire barrel while pigeons arc
iridescent, unloading over happy hour.
I take in the view at mid-bridge.
Glass towers blued as the blue thighs
of clouds roll across the burlaps of sky.
River hauling debris around green hills
to the Pacific. Lines of brake-lights strobe
down bridge slopes, commuters fleeing
cubicles, becoming consumers on
that freeway’s exit ramp to the mall.
Swing shift break over, I approach
my factory’s riverside door as another truck
backs into the shipping dock, dark cave
needing a refill. I flick my break smoke
onto a puddle of diesel, half
wanting to ignite a distraction.
Born and raised in Charleston, S.C., moved to Chicago, educated
at red-bricked universities and on city streets, Charles has enjoyed working as a counselor, truck driver, warehouse manager and enthused bookstore clerk. Married on a Kauai beach in 2011, a loving Grandfather for five free
spirits, his work as Poet and shareholder in an independent Bookstore’s
collective continues! And not a few of his other poems have been accepted by literary journals, such as The Pedestal, Gargoyle, Poetry365, The Criterion [India], Poetry Salzburg [Austria], The Oyez Review, Windfall [Oregon], Muse, Battered Suitcase, Poetry Kanto [Japan], Open Road, Pastiche [England], Belle Reve, Tiger’s Eye and Rusty Nail.