Wednesday, December 6, 2006

This piece is called "Tranquility." And below is a poem influenced by traditional country music--in particular, Hank Williams' "So lonesome I could cry":

Trash Truck

Each Monday morning,
just before dawn
the trash truck comes.
Whines with its sing-song brakes
in the alley outside my window
and wakes me from my long, black sleep.
Lights quiver from the truck
like stars in the blue-cold daybreak
and its beauty stuns and saddens me
in my half sleep. I strain my eyelids
to watch the man raise bins to the lift
then climb the platform and yell go go.
Too quickly the truck is passing away.
I turn over to go back to sleep.
All I have left is its image slipping.
I am lonely
and I don’t know why.
Lord knows, I don’t know why.