THE WINDOW WASHER

 

The warmth of the mid-day sun

Fought through cotton to my skin

I cursed the child beyond the pane

Looking out at me looking in

 

For his face mated my reflection

And I wished for the moment to pass

Since the part of me that I could see

Was trapped inside the glass

 

Yet he was free to wander

Over brown synthetic plains

Laughing at me when a sudden breeze

Raced a chill through my weathered veins

 

I dreamed I was Mother Nature’s suckling

As she rocked me to and fro

When in truth I was a prisoner

My cell was having no place to go

 

Now this bar of milk and sugar

That to me could be so sweet

I pondered the pain such a thing might cause

If it fell four hundred feet

 

While kindness battled perversity

As angry cats have done

I tried quite hard to convince myself

This notion was strictly in fun

 

Just then I heard a quiet splat

Whose aim could be so true?

For I noticed a piece of sky had fallen

And landed on my shoe

 

Though oftentimes the ruthless welkin 

Defiles my unsullied vesture

Never before had my wandering mind

Been halted by a curious gesture

 

So with reason prevailing I swallowed my candy

And softly recited the ways

How a querulous servant so far from the ground

Might earnestly ask for a raise.