Our breath is hot like the asphalt beneath our feet.

Strangers all, keeping at arms length
Furtive glances, polite smiles
Given and withdrawn like shadows.
The only shade out here.

Cars whizzing by stir up clouds of dust
We bat at them like we are waving to our best friends.
Cars and trucks
Hmmmm…a taxi would be nice.
Whizzzzz.
To the store
School
Work
Home
Play

Every once in awhile someone leans out
Looking for large looming buses on the horizon.
We all wait for the sound of air brakes hissing.

So hot.

One little girl with brown soft eyes looks at me.
My smile doesn’t shake her off.
She clings on with her dark pretty eyes like a hug.
“Where did you get those big brown eyes?” I ask.
She shrugs like she doesn’t have the answer to that.
Just then the bus lumbers up.
She twirls around, her skirt caught up in the heat of the exhaust.
All the way around like a ballerina in the desert.
She turns and replies with a smile,
“K Mart.”

07/11/2003