Tonight's Poet Corner: A Boombox And A Bicycle

A Boombox And A Bicycle
by Belinda Roddie

Four men lit up,
swirling smoke around icicle lights,
beside a gas station beside the nearest overpass,
while one of them carried a boombox
against his shoulder, and a bicycle lay
propped, undecorated and uncelebrated,
on the pavement next to a Yield sign.

Elsewhere, a hotel's Christmas tree
glowed in its window, with a wreath
haphazardly suspended on a close car's
front bumper, twinkling holly
and poinsettia as the driver coaxed
the festive but fatigued vehicle to life.

The fast food chains were still hopping,
while I, full with roast and starch, headed
back to the apartment where the colors waited
to be re-ignited, and gifts waited to be put
into their proper places. Somehow, I felt
restless, yet simultaneously, in a twisting
coil of conflict wrapped in tinsel, I was
also in a weird, comforting state of peace.