Sidewalk Sidereal

​

Looking up from the whir of whipping ropes,

this double dutch master of pastel steps

pressed in my memory a scene of Scopes

offending a nation needing forceps

to assist the birth of kinetic thought.

And then I recalled that recent clipping

depicting the outline of one just shot

there, right there, at the crack she was skipping.

 

That piece was at home with my trilobite —

quiet multimillion year companion

bound by a fossiliferous contract —

bored now of the nagging living invite

given when I plucked it from its canyon,

wishing to be washable chalk unpacked.