Bo Pedersen Geel: Afternoon, March*

Afternoon, March*

Along Nott Street
dirt lays on the snow
like a five o’clock shadow.

Up the hill, detail defers to
distance: colors mute to abstract,
objects to archetypes.

An old man
(his walk the whisper
of a sauntering gait)
moves down Grand Boulevard
with a dog and stick.

I watch his arthritic
toss, the dog’s quick,
joyous leap across
the crusted median

And think, for an instant,
not of weariness,
winter, or work;
but of sweet, wet air and
mindless motion.

Across the way,
from a second-story
porch a cardinal-red shirt
whips in the wind,
shouting of color to come.

*(Looking out the 5th floor
window of Ellis Hospital
– early 90’s)


Bo Pedersen Geel