Thursday, January 14, 2010

Inversion

To breathe and not to stay indoors to wear a mask
And feel the fool, that crazy woman
Wears a doctor's mask and wonders
Why does that mother take her baby out
To stroll within the shallow stroller
14 degrees Fahreheit, windchill 6?  She walks
Without hurry, in deliberation, without expression, in air
Too toxic to breathe.  We're having an inversion
(The baby's face is pale blue in the weak light)
She looks depressed
Like the rest of us.

Even on a good day, early spring, full sun
I'd rather keep out of sight,
Where once I was a curiosity
Always in the garden with an old dog
Lying in the sun, ears pivoting like
Periscope, sentry, even dreaming
Children like me.  So do dogs

©2010 Peggy Pendleton

3 comments:

Kulkuri said...

When we lived in Reno in the early 80s, we experienced smog inversions. It looked kinda cool as you were coming down the hill into Reno and all you would see is a few tall buildings sticking up thru the smog. Then you would drive thru it and get under and see the rest of the city. We lived in Lemmon Valley which is up out of the bowl that Reno is in, so we didn't have much of a problem with smog, just when we went into Reno.

Utah Savage said...

Kulkuri, It's nice of you to comment. I've missed you, but I do understand that when I stopped going out and visiting other bloggers, they stopped visiting me. So when you visit me now, it means a lot to me.

Kulkuri said...

I've been visiting your blog on a regular basis, just don't comment often. You are still on my blogroll and when it shows a new post, I come over and check it out.