Living Snapshots
by Odin Roark

Click

Waxy paper
cartooned respite
chewy pink
bubbles small
messes big
don't you be blowin' them
your brows be shaved
daunted mother
silly child

Click

Driver's license
double feature drive-in
windows open
friends in next car
cuddle up seats
brown bagged cherries
stems to pull
pits to suck clean
stomach aches ignored
paper peeled straws
blowgun ammo
shot between cars
shoring up boredom
while girlfriend gazes
Jimmy Dean's red jacket
up there four stories tall

Click

Makin' it on his own
lonely brownstone
Central Park always dark
letters few
collectors many
pay or else
notice this
notice that
Oops
the draft is nice
they say
three squares a day
see the world
'til you don't

Click

Dark storms
rain down emotions
brain entangled
sunrise runs
one’s nature hides
evil's time

Click

Smiles
door to door sales
vacuum cleaners rule
used car
crazy wife
crazier life
now that's a neat package
'til it's not

Click

Jack is good
Smirnoff bad
mirrors in front
noise in back
cacophonous peanut shells below
orchestrating stubby pencil
upon napkins write
verse or prose
doesn't matter
rewrapping
those neat packages 'til…

Click

'Til glad hand extends
binds him with different wrappings
tells him it’s all good
long as he
walks the walk
barks the talk
shuffles left
shuffles right
keeps believing straight ahead
is not behind

Click

Someday’s final bundle
patiently waits the wrap

until then

he reloads

keeps clicking