Sestina #3

Collaboration with Aytch Rae

On a trampoline wreathed in dandelions, Andy,
eleven, leaping between glee and ennui, wouldn't
be opposed to a dose of aging potion. Either way it went
(back to milk-tooth gaps or balding and bearded) he knew
he'd be freed of this pre-teen identity worry.
Over thinking, over emoting, and loathe to be near his folks inside.


A job like that, they had to have a man on the inside
If it wasn't the teller or the guard, it had to be Andy
And with fifty grand missing you might want to worry
You thought he would run. He said he wouldn't.
In the end, you should have trusted the things you knew
not ended up in this cell looking at pictures of places you never went

Just a dog, wondering where his wolf side went;
age has snuffed the hunt and howl inside.
Chop licking, sniffing for a scent he knew
arthritic hips twinge, lies belly sunward waiting, and he
runs paw-twitching quick through fox filled dreams. Wouldn't
be against a juicy bone to worry.

Homeless, the fringe, they fray and they worry
Unraveling fabric of society through the cracks they went
Wills spent whether they should or shouldn't they wouldn't
Flaws in the system no one to assist them they don't go inside
Sleep in bitter cold parks as distant as being camped in the Andes
Outcasted together sun rises on nothing new

On the wall a decapitated gnu
wasn't much of a wildebeest, were he?
Took a chance to run and up the ante
but the shotgun called his bluff and off it went
turned his whole world inside
out. Ended up a trophy when he thought he wouldn't.

Each time it happened, he promised to quit drinking. He wouldn't
But he would slow. Lies to his wife but she knew
The truth. And no matter how many drops he drank to fill an empty inside
There was always the hollow. By the bittered end neither did worry
What was to come. Days spent wonder where years went
Drinking with friends then alone in the end a bottle and he

Done wouldn't be undone, too late to worry
all you knew determined where you went.
Whether my side or inside never stopping to ask, and why