by Don Kingfisher CampbellI. Walking to the marketMoist wipe on the sidewalk
and a matchbook that says Thank You
In the mortuary planter
an empty Menthol Marlboro
And a Funeral car window sticker folded
on a parking space looks like Fun
No surprise, a discarded used cigarette
and a Popsicle stick in the other planter
Farther, on the driveway, a straw wrapper
and a pack of Camel Menthol in a flowering bush
At the corner gutter a plastic twisted
shopping bag waits for any flow of water
Across the street a trail of toilet paper
forms an S in a rectangular planter
On the church steps an opened veggie bag
is imprinted Stay Open To The Possibilities
Bus stop planter sports a half-used Arby's
Tangy BBQ Sauce tublet and what I believe
is a mangled Kit Kat wrapper next to a
torn four tablet package of Pepto Chewables
There is also a balled up sandwich wrapper
printed with the word Comment inside
II. At the marketParked next to a car an almost clear McCafe cup
and next to another one a barely sipped
El Pollo Loco drink might be lemonade
G Series Gatorade Prime 01 packet squeezed
out and discarded on a parking lot median
On the asphalt between the lines of a space,
hard plastic container used to hold
Home Grown Sweet Flat Peaches
A concrete space bumper has the ripped off
label of a pack of Value Soft White Facial Tissue
A classic crushed in two red plastic drinking cup
reflects late afternoon Alhambra sun
And what's this? A soiled menu for a Chinese
restaurant and another crushed cup (this one
was a Golden Mini Oreo Bite Size Go-Pack!)
III. On the walk backA banana peel in a parking space
looking like one of Prince's guitars
A Popsicle stick partially stained orange
and stuck in its plain white wrapper
An upside down In-N-Out smashed cardboard tray
with equally flattened red palm tree emblazoned cup
I think I found the clear plastic lid
that belonged to that soda
Yellow soda cap, another Arby's wrapper,
another moist wipe, another emptied clear cup
Finally! A single dandelion on the mortuary lawn
ready for a confused child in need of fun
And not far away two tossed Super Heavy Duty
Eveready batteries in the grass below the viewing room
IV. Back homeOne apartment's got 14 cigarette butts
resting on the window air conditioner
Another has three recently finished
plastic bottles: two water, one Coke Zero
And the pool below our apartment supports
two broken parts of a blue Styrofoam noodle
floating near an un-tethered life saver
Don Kingfisher Campbell has recently been published in Statement, Poetry Super Highway, Writers At Work, The Bicycle Review, Crack The Spine, Lummox, Poetic Diversity, The Sun Runner, and Poetry Breakfast. He is currently working on an MFA in Poetry at Antioch University in Los Angeles.
