Street roots., December 23, 2011, Page 10, Image 10

FOOD DESERTS, fro m page 10
street roots
11
Dec. 23, 2011
No Prince
By John Thiemeyer
beneath the window there’s noisy fumbling,
someone is fooling
with the lids
on the dull blue and green plastic bins
searching for treasure in Thursday night’s trash
before the morning’s pickup.
I pick up the blind and peek down
a woman with hair as gray and long
as a street covered with old snow
is looking for cans and bottles, recyclable
if they were there
but they aren’t
until she senses me overhead
and looks at me with her hand raised
like a wand she was waving, or a salute, or
shading her eyes at midday in July,
not a freezing night in early December,
and the lone streetlight out and the street a featureless void,
and she follows where I’m pointing, picks
the empties from the low shade of the bedraggled Daphne
one by one putting them soundlessly into her plastic
black leaf bag, a muffled prize, short of a kingdom -
‘and I’m not Rapunzel either,’ I mutter,
knowing she can’t hearaie down there
and will return in a week, prince or no prince.
■
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j j t
By Pete Yahnke Railand
"Meteorologists ought to have to list their phone
numbers and addresses on the news when
forecasting the weather."
— Jason Breedlove
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on
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I t’s all
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