Rue
The palm trees are full of bats
you’ve no money but the conductor lets you on the tram
the rain falls in slow motion
and you almost swear to yourself some of those drops are actually falling upwards
there’s a flash as someone runs the red
and you drop your blues
You play tic-tac-toe with The City
on the window’s condensation
and by the end of the line
you finally have to concede a cat’s game
you swear to yourself you almost had it this time
and you drop your blues
I’m going to rail this skyline tonight
you all just sit and watch
then I’m going to toss it away
and never jump back on this line
©2022 Christian Garduno All rights reserved.
Christian Garduno’s work can be read in over 100 literary magazines. He’s the recipient of the 2019 national Willie Morris Award for Southern Poetry, a Finalist in the 2020-2021 Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Writing Contest, and a Finalist in the 2021 Julia Darling Memorial Poetry Prize. He lives and writes along the South Texas coast with his wonderful wife Nahemie and young son Dylan.