The Rattling Wheel
It started with the Pinball Wizard
and quickly moved on to Violent Femmes and the Cure.
Those are the ones that stuck.
To arrive at the moment when she blurts out.
"Those were mine." A reckoning.
A glance over her shoulder as
she continues through the puddles along the dirt road.
There could be a long rainy afternoon of pushing replay,
but unlikely.
There was not time for that this year, this week, this day.
They hover anyway like a tiny egg shell just beneath the yoke.
Visible to the bare eye.
You'd have to sink your finger in and snatch it.
That's what happens.
The shock of recognition shows up and
You decide to pull out that damn egg shell.
A splinter you pick and prod.
Her mind races back to task as she reaches for the Shreddies and onto the paper towel,
the wheel of the cart rattles.
She hums over it. For now.
July 2011
Heidi Legg