(composed upon finding a personal letter displayed in a newspaper rack)
Heart writ small
On lined paper
Carlos shared news from Priscilla
with the street
The weekly tabloid rack's
display frame,
not to be refilled
'til two days hence
Could announce to all who stopped to read
That things were ok
That she went to Austin for a day with her aunt Maria
about two weeks ago.
That her cousin had her baby
and she and the father
had decided to call the child
Ignacio.
That the weather was so nice last Sunday
that she and Anita
had gone down to the riverwalk
And she showed Anita
that little shop
where you bought her
the doll she keeps
on her dresser.
That her little brother Ernest left for the Marines on Thursday week
That its been raining on and off for three days
and the grass has been growing faster
but her dad’s knee is acting up again
so she’ll probably stop by after work
and mow it for him.
That she misses you and is enclosing the picture she promised and is wondering how you are because its been weeks since she's heard from you and maybe you've lost her address so she's putting it at the bottom of the letter and maybe she should close now instead of going on and on
even though ...
you used to say
you enjoyed it.
So instead of last week's tabloid headlines
Curious passers-by
get to view
her heart
and your bare-knuckle calluses.
Until some kind stranger
sees the bits of soul
flaking off
and disposes of the
heart-scrawled pages.
that you left in the newspaper rack.
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