37) Amends

It's 11.9 miles to Mardela Springs.
The public school's a left away from
the town which is too small to be called
a town.

Past the school and heading
south is a road which
immediately kisses country,
a large pond there

with a house
beside it.
The shadows
in the fall morning
make a wind beside the house.

The students are tired.
It's Monday. It doesn't seem
to matter what day, most of the time
they're tired.

In the early fall dark
the road whispers to the pond.
"Amends." School is out, no one hears. In 216
the janitor replaces a fluorescent light.
He drops a screw from ten steps up.

The school is so quiet it hears the drop.
The school and the road begin their talk.
Soon the pond joins in.
"Amends."

---Michael Burkard