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Helen Wickes
MAYBE
Could be the seagull on the grocery shop trash bin
Or that dame on the bike almost running me over
Possibly the flower seller asking this one, that one
Maybe how the guy waved me to cross the street
Definitely the free sample at See’s chocolate store
Blessed the Japanese shop guy who had what I needed
Likewise the stationery store for next year’s calendar
But certainly, heading back, the ambulance, the cop car
There sat the seagull right where I left him
Old woman, someone said, knocked down, robbed, hit
Of course, the kids ran, driven away, gone in a flash
And then her blood on the sidewalk, the crumpled hat
Maybe the fog rolling in, evening wind, long walk home
Possibly the door key catching, fear, sigh, brief truce
About the writer:
Helen Wickes has had four books of her poetry published: World as You Left It (Sixteen Rivers Press, 2015), Moon Over Zabriskie (Glass Lyre Press, 2014), Dowser’s Apprentice (Glass Lyre Press, 2014), and In Search of Landscape (Sixteen Rivers Press, 2007). Her manuscript Transit of Mercury was a finalist for the 2019 Codhill Press Poetry Award and a finalist for the 2018 Catamaran prize. She lives in Oakland, California, and worked for many years as a psychotherapist. She received an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars in 2002.
Image: Nebula Sunset by Michael E. Arth (contemporary). Acrylic applied with airbrush on unspecified medium. 34 x 36 inches. 1974. By free license.
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