HERE IN THE SHALLOWS…
where we breathe uncomforts.
We see and hear the walklings
skip across our heads;
feel their heels dig
into our existence.
Souls are just like flesh
except unblemished.
They rip open easy–
ooze out into the air.
Where they become
less than intended.
Their rotting wounds
satiate our thoughts
until we can no longer
think and reason and sense
our beginnings and ends
hence eternity is Hell.
I felt the exact moment or thereabouts
when my soul slit open–
I found a cockroach in the kitchen.
Squashed it with the bottom of my glass.
Wiped its remains on the counter’s edge.
Poured Jack in the glass. Met it’s brim.
Drank it straight
down without a second thought.
Or maybe it was the time
when I told that lady she looked good
in that skirt. When in fact, she looked like
a deranged flamenco dancer on crack.
If not those, definitely
when I saw my son slam
his mouth into the table
and my initial reaction was
‘that’s just fuckin’ great’!
I wonder if the walklings know
they are just a thought away
from oozing their soul
into the slums of oblivion?
I wonder if they know
that when they pass a homeless lady
on the street without giving
her at least one freakin’ donut
out of the dozen they carry–
they are indeed ripping the seams
of their silver-linings?
But then again, if they knew,
they’d probably give her one!
Not to be kind
but to prevent the ooze.
Hell, they might stategize
and give her two
like stockpiling good deeds.
It doesn’t work that way you know.
The act has to come pure without self-thought.
It’s harder than one would think.
Take this for example-
A lady gave away her cab.
We watched from down here
through the grates under the streets.
She waved a cab down.
When it pulled over she went to get in
but saw an old man hobbling toward her-
waving, yelling “Hold it! Please!”
She held the door open for him. It took him forever
but she still kept a smile. When he got there,
she suggested they share the ride.
He replied “That’d be great!”
and then said he’d pay
since she was so nice to hold the cab.
She let the old man get in first and offered her arm
for support. He slid over and told the cab driver
his destination ‘the westside.’
The lady thanked the old man for his kind offer
but noted that she was going to ‘the eastside.’
She wished him well and shut the door.
But here under the layer of her reality-
We saw how she lifted her head
and wrinkled her nose
as the old man scraped by her
when he got into the cab.
His more than a day old body odor
hugged her too tight. She couldn’t breathe
comfortably.
We heard as she stood on the sidewalk
sniffing her clothes, her hair, her arm-
she cursed that old man and muttered
“G-D, I hope I don’t smell like him!
Maybe it’s just on my sleeve!”
She took off her dress Jacket
and waved another cab down.
It was easy
for her to get a cab.
Here, under the walklings-
we can see and hear them: truly.
We feel the shiver of thin slivered souls
drip down the metals bars
that barely separate
us from them.
Maggie Shurtleff
