July 21, 2004

I have decided to turn the outside world off,
silencing the desire to ferret out other people's
opinions about things I can not touch,

I pick up trash in front of my house,
am gifted with finding a book of postage,

and lost instruments that had rolled out of

my car unseen in the middle of the night,

like errant meatballs.

I pick up what trash I can touch,

continue to go out of my way
to exercise my tired bones,

In this quiet, I rattle my mass

of imagination free

listen to the tumble.

Can you
hear the air?

It is the only thing

that costs nothing.

Linda Joy Burke

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