The Time I Was a Postal Carrier
[ Jason Kerzinksi ]

If you could describe yourself as a year 

In pictures how would you begin

A dry mouth post New Year's Eve

Regret setting in before you 

Try to accomplish quitting smoking 

Another year in a row you

Let guilt trick you into following 

It into another year like 

A shadow shaped like pac man

Chomping down as you traverse life 

You light one and look out the window 

Not with unease but a sense of calm

As a plump squirrel climbs 

Up a thick trunked oak tree

Turning to look at a snow drift

A snow that blinds when the sun shines

You make your way past your Mother's room

Your temporary home until you save

Up to buy yourself better credit 

In the garage you remove a photo book

With pictures of your mom

Thumbing through the pages on your bed

Your mother dressed in a yellow bikini smiling a smile

You've never seen come across her lips 

A tenderness now hidden in old age

You put on your postal gear hoping

Not to lose what you think is already gone

As if this government job will somehow

Kill the poetry inside