Looks

It looks clean but the emotion is not very generous
Her brother had never seen the mountains before but he painted them
That woman next door stands by the window smoking
Her screaming child
Fabric for a moment
And the stuff of life piled behind him

She closes the blinds
As the clild in the post office speaks
Of a complaint in her own language that works
It's the binding (we hold tightly) that makes us scream
And then we paint it
Over and over again--

A woman smoking
A child screaming
A mother, a son
Her man, his daughter
Their child who breathes
And the stories that tell the truth of a life that was worth it

Stretch-out, we're in for a long one