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.