First Friday

Pale mountains boxed in steel roll by the battered window
Old bottle caps tinkle beneath the soles of retired biker

Emtpiness has become a national landmark

Caravans of pickups waddle forward
Displacing the abandoned manor
Where biohazards in blue jeans
Drop off their offspring for the weekend

A pedestrian questions why folks put
Kitchen appliances on their front porch
Only the insects seem to comprehend
The endlessness of this tableaux

Battlegrounds ferment into playgrounds
During the changing of the stoplights

The students become deaf in surround sound
Retailers are obliterated by their daily routines
Replanted as songs camp counselors sing
To lull the scouts to sleep

Out back two orange boys
Fulfill their community service
Harpooning trash left behind from last nights party

Leaving the waste in a dumpster for
A daydreaming cancer patient to mold
Into a gray talisman the city council
Will demand us to worship
During our most inconspicuous Mondays