Rope 2
Early evening as the changes of fall approach
Warm days, cool nights, colored leaves, lawns greening
For the last time
Some deck chairs moving inside
Mist rising from the day heated asphalt hits the cool
Dropping air
Maybe a weather front?
I drift like the mist through the walls of the suburban houses
"So what did you learn in school today?"
"Not much."
"I'm not commenting on your cooking, I just don't like
Broccoli."
"And then he said something about the merger."
From table to table and house to house
Snatches of conversations
Building to that silent roar
No one walking the streets with no one on porches
A church meeting for preschoolers with empty seats
Between each parent
But a group standing together in the back
"So I said to him, if you don't want to be involved..."
"No I don't think that Sean should be kept home another
Year"
The individual stands of our lives meeting others
Our individual ropes building the cord of community
But the strands are not tight
And some only twist once and are gone
Yet there is co-mingling of the lives
Twisting in and out of each other
Individual stands are shared more than once
"There are no coincidences in life only plans"
"Yes, we are all going to visit your uncle this weekend"
But in the city...
As I drift through the buildings
There are people alone with each other
Eating in silence or watching for something
Others are in gathering places so that they are not by themselves
The din of a dinner where a waitress is working
Chatting up her people
Not for tips but for company
Slipping knotting each strand to another
Enough strong ties to anchor a ship
As this state is shored