Once, When I Was A Kid
copyright 2025 by Michael S Walker
Mrs. Baker
Our next-door neighbor
Had this little picture book
I truly wanted
A souvenir
From the Museum
Of Pompeii
All in Italian
With black and white pictures of
People and animals
Somehow
Violently changed
Into clay.
Such a strange artifact…
I worked three days
In her basement
Sweeping
Shoveling
Hauling 40 years of hoarding
To the the back
Of her gray
House
And for pay
She gave me that thing
The Garden of the Fugitives
Under the ashes
Of Vesuvius…
The summer locusts screamed
In the trees
Of our
Street
As I
Stared…