10


The first full hour
of summer's dark,

the time his shift ended.
His ten speed, somewhere

between work and home.
Fingers that couldn't hold.

“We found the bicycle,
one wheel folded

like a taco.” A ten-
word story.

My former student,
so earnest for a fourth

grader, burdened by secret
thoughts. A man at ten,

his middle age.


             --for Brandon

Poet Lore,
​Spring/Summer 2011