Beverly Frydman
Animated Walk
We entered the park as usual
Macy ate grass, I started to jog
A runner in tangerine trainers passed us
and turned into a cyclone of dust
Macy shot herself out of a cannon
landed in cattails and dandelions
She slept for just a minute
Z’s flew out of her wet black nose
I slogged on towards her
shedding sweat like big tear drops
I caught them in my hand, Macy drank them
We were all cartoon characters
A stick figure mother pushed a pram
and spoke into a pulsing mobile phone
saying blah blah blah blah
in speech bubbles above her head
Above the prison were zig zag lines
pulsating black and red radio waves
low level rumbling smuggled
out through barred windows
An outline of a father and son
watched a helicopter land in the parking lot
outside the hospital, propeller spinning out
prayers, let them live, let them live
Still animated we headed towards home
On our tail were a couple of crows cawing
schmuck, schmuck, schmuck, schmuck
Their words landed like shit on our shoulders
Back on the street we fell into step
walking slowly behind people in masks
Our neighbour called out from his bedroom window
I’ve missed you, how are you, where have you been
—Submitted on 05/27/2020
Beverly Frydman is a bereavement counsellor in London. She teaches journal writing courses and a course fusing the practices of yoga and writing. Frydman holds an MA in creative writing and personal development from The University of Sussex.
SUBMIT to What Rough Beast via our SUBMITTABLE site.
If you enjoyed today’s poem and you value What Rough Beast, consider making a donation to Indolent Books, a nonprofit poetry press.