When She Found Out She Had Been Misusing the Word Connundrum her Whole Life, She Left her Cubicle and Went for a Walk

Published in Coconut

There are 12.9 miles of trails in the arboretum.

The Quaker School is closed today.

Star Way is off Star Street but Star Boulevard

which is more like a road or an avenue

is miles away. A boulevard is wide

and lined with trees. An avenue is a course,

an approach like biology or a secret door

behind the revolving bookcase taken

to access someone or something.

There is an islet in the large pond. I dream

of building a house on it. A very small house

a chalet, a lean-to, a hut. The morning shadows

would diffuse the strangeness of waking.

I could plant strawberries and sell jam

at the bi-monthly farmers market

in the McKinley Elementary parking lot.

Id travel to work and back each day

in rowboat Id name Jehoshaphat! Except

in the deep winter, when I could skate.

Ill paint the turtles shells. Ill hoist a flag.

Ill build a windmill to power my cabin.

Of course, this is a pipe dream. Perhaps

if I agreed to clean the hiking trails

and give nature lectures, my town would acquiesce?

Im tired. It's Tuesday. It gets dark early

this time of year. I pass an old man whistling

In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning.

I turn around to follow, to see him home.
ilsand give nature lectures, my town would acquiesce?I'm tired. It's Tuesday. It gets dark earlythis time of year. I pass an old man whistling"In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning."I turn around to follow, to see him home.