Document 24

She leaves her apartment
at 6am
and counts the steps
down to the sidewalk
she calls it “the boardwalk”
for creatures great and small
she thought she looked atrocious
because there was toothpaste

on the bathroom mirror
that distorted half her face
she’d been washing her face with snow
fresh from the flower box
with the wilted flowers
above the sink
but in reality she looks beautiful

In an off-the-beaten-path kind of way
her mother had it too
before the accident..
she wasn’t committing suicide in any way
she just couldn’t make it door to door to let anybody know she was afraid
of being murdered by crows

those hoodlums of the night
owls who get a hoot out of watching her sleep

from dream to dream
she didn’t get out much
you might have guessed..
but, nonplussed or not
her daughter walks up to the old windmill every day and prays that there will come a time when the wind changes direction
and the sea calls her name
or sends it a message �" in a bottle of milk
from 1931 - before the war
and the fish all find a way to live on land
and the mailman can make an honest living
providing a dishonest service
giving out those letters
scrawled in lazy handwritten tears
to the surprise of every heart on Mortimer Lane…
A miracle appears
in the form of a feeble teenage voice drifting out to sea
“Susan …Susan …Susan”