KEVIN McCANN
ANSWERED AN AD
Pulls the apartment door
Towards her, slowly clicks
It shut, picks up her bag
Packed for who knows,
Pads down backstairs, slips
On her shoes, clack-taps
Echoing the basement car
Park, finds her old Ford,
Still starts first time, drives
Up the ramp, checks right
And left, No traffic yet,
Re-reads the directions
That came with his note,
Rolls down her window,
Grips the wheel gulping,
At long last sets off,
Chalked my name
On the sidewalk,
As rain washed it away
Reaches the Freeway,
Still early, still quiet
But takes a Highway
Instead as her sister
Wakes up crying, makes
Coffee until it’s late enough
To phone A shower of stones
Cracked our roof tiles. Mother
Said it was neighbours who’ve
Never liked us at all Mid-morning
She stops at a diner, drinks coffee,
Has doughnuts for breakfast,
Smokes openly as she leaves
Brushing some man Beery breath
Who whistles And the wheels on
The car go round and round and
Past a cop, parked by some billboard,
Asleep Round and round and round
Overtakes a school bus, jaundiced,
Empty Round and reaches her turn off,
Checks herself in the mirror,
Smiles, practicing.
I AM THE ONE
Who set out that morning,
Instructions laid out
On the passenger seat.
I am the one
Who, after driving all day,
Slowed through that town
But when I wound down my window
To ask last minute directions
Had my pardon me sir
Or ‘scuse me there mam
Get no more response
Than some panhandling bum.
I am the one
Who was last to arrive
(So the gatekeeper told me
Then smiled at his wife)
I am the one Who followed the slowly
Last curving stretch
And when the house pounced
As I rounded the curve
Just past the tree stump
Hung in a vacuum Head in a vice
Cold freshly scalped
I am the one whose mind changed right there.
I am the one who turned back