Some Places I Walk Carefully

Hiking on the trails on the north side of Piestewa Peak,

Walking on the streets of downtown Chicago,

Sauntering along Eighth Street in Holland, and

Shuffling down Main Street in Douglas,

I watch the way directly in front of me

because I don’t want to

slip on a rock or step on a rattler in the desert,

trip over somebody directly in front of me who stops to look at the architecture on State,

get in the way of a foursome heading right for me with no intention of moving over on             Eighth St. or

catch the eye of an obviously very important person weekending from the North Shore             who looks away very quickly  and

tosses her hair back and forth as if to wave me off on an otherwise glorious Indian               Summer Sunday in Douglas.

I just got out of church and I still wish she had gone north to Lake Geneva instead of             south and then east and north driving very, very fast, of course.