The Beautiful Parking Lot Without Mercy

I’m standing on a concrete sidewalk on the edge
of a black asphalt parking lot. Across the lot
a woman I know is walking to her parked car.

White light reflecting from big clouds high overhead
and orange light from the Sun setting in the west
glimmer against the black asphalt making it look
like the woman I know is walking on water.

I think to myself: “Look. She’s walking on water.
I knew she’d be able to do that kind of stuff.”

I cannot walk over to her to say hello.
I can’t walk on water. I know I would fall in.
I’d fall in, get sucked under, drown in whatever
is below the surface even though the surface
I know is only pretend on pretend water.

*

I was going to write more. About standing stones.
About the Moon in the east behind purple clouds.
About this woman I know walking to her car
across a parking lot that turns into water,
then into grass and fills with a circle of stones.
About this woman walking out of the Stonehenge
in the parking lot and seeing me watching her.
About me turning away, looking at the Moon,
watching the sky, strangely, turn instantly to night,
staring at bright stars behind the Moon, wondering
what constellation was so impossibly bright.

*

I’m sitting at the keyboard of my computer.

I didn’t want to write more. I knew the bright stars
were a distraction, an unreal constellation,
something to hold my attention while the woman
took a few more steps across the lost parking lot
then reached out, grabbed me from behind and pulled me in.

I’m sitting at the keyboard of my computer.

But I’m lost now, too, and all the stars overhead
are too bright and the patterns they make are unreal.

I’m sitting at the keyboard of my computer.

I hear something that sounds like waves on rocks, splashing,
or maybe it’s the sound of car engines rumbling
or maybe it’s the sound of a woman laughing.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .



Parking Lots


Parking Lots At Night #1: The Morning Fashion Shoot

Parking Lots At Night #2: Dinner With Shelby

Parking Lots At Night #3: The Parking Lot At Night

Parking Lots At Night #4: The Next Day


Defying Nature In The Parking Lot


A Bobber On The Asphalt


To Push Away The Universe Itself




Expeditions


“Expedition” Versus “Going Out”