Profile Shot

Profile Shot

Standing at the river
catching a moment of
cool reflection.

The year was 1985
and everything seemed old
ideas and infrastructure
were both crumbling.

Working on old equipment
in the old school way
which some say
my job is now done by robots.

Thinking
of the changes
brought by
this new direction.

Takes me back
on another
visit to things past
a reality
that has passed.

Events like a chain
from Mockingbird
to the mill village
in a short space of time.

Time passed
and things are gone
and gone still again
from that point in time.

Took a walk
to the north
up the river
for a few blocks.

Walked across
the new highway bridge
being built.

Every thing had
some significant
difference from
the last time around.

What was once
houses and
an apartment building
now were
other structures.

Things continue
to reinvent
and adjust
some go back to nature.

I'm sure there are
many other changes
that I have yet to see

as the big bridge
is being built over
the Spiderweb.

The Spiderweb
is a collection of
neighborhoods
and businesses
and so many other things.

The sign painter
and across the way
was the farmer's Market area
the bridge over Bell Creek.

There was a day
my car stopped running
right in the center
rush hour
and maybe
backed up by a train.

I and two friends
pushed the car
out of the traffic
somehow.

People in traffic
let us pass.

Up the hill
was Madame Butterfly
a restaurant
up on Saint Mary's Road.

Back down by the
Bell Creek
where the GED night school
used to be.

Men selling newspapers
on the corner there
on the edge
of the promenade.

Hilton Trailer Park
sprawled
for what seemed like
a mile or two.

It sprawled
back around to Joy Road
and the battery factory
lead smoke in the air.

He was a mad cult leader
looking for
a congregation
performing baptisms
in the river.

He was
drawing on the energy
of every capsized tug boat
on the river.

Who was the man who
tried to jump
actually did
right into the river.

They led him away
he was soaking wet
but very much alive
the headlines said.

I was
standing by the bridge
having a smoke
looking down at Bell Creek
roaring south
the the river.

I tossed
some pages down
from the bank
into the creek
jumped back on my bike
and rode on ahead.

Coming along
down Brennan Road.

Past the trailer park
across the street
that came up
as the road curved
around the bend.

More pistol shots
crack in the wind
from somewhere
down in the park.

I rode on
around the bend
in crosstown traffic
they said look out now.

Lady Galatea
she sent for me
she was at the front gate
with a taxi cab.

I clocked out
and took her home
where she stayed with me
for the next ten years.

To tell that story
would be
bringing you down
so we shall leave that
for another time.

On up the other side
of the creek
up the hill
into Carver Heights
a row of houses
now gone
was a friend named Grant.

It was thirty-five years ago
none of those houses
exist now.

I was
standing on the street
talking with Grant
about yesterday's storm
a near tornado.

A tree came down
from the yard behind his
knocked down his fence
nearly hit Grant's house.

I showed him the huge
pecan tree
across the street
that came down at the same time.

Three pistol shots
rang out
in the distance.

He strolled on around the bend
headed home
I said look out now try not
to get hit
by a stray bullet.

In this long boost
of serendipity.

There was a time
down on River Avenue
there were duels
in the alley.

I could hear the
car horns
gunshot sounds
people yelling sometimes.

Down at the Riverwalk
just after dark
I could hear distant gunfire
sounds from
across the river.

-Will Dockery (8-9-20)0