COLUMN AND TIRE
BY NATHAN LESLIE
The sweep of human testimony contained
in West Palm Beach, 1941:
a cracked stucco wall, the slats of a vent
framed on the left by a wobbly
telephone pole pared
to its tree carcass,
edged by dusty pebbles,
the sallow rubble
of bone ash, death fusing
a backdrop.
In the forefront, a tire leaning,
white-rim
grimed to gray,
scored in two notches of tread,
the base the scoured remains of a column,
Corinthian thicket mounting
to a hewn head.
Tottering
on the rim, the bleached and
whittled remains of a whelk, armors
this barren blind alley,
to what may sweep across
this desert, as each did before.
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