Alone in D.C.

Patrick Frank

There is a train rumbling all night and no one bothers
to pick up trash in the street. I have never learned
how to hail a taxi in all these years. It has been
forever since I have attended A.A. I keep looking in
my box of odds and ends for the number of a friend

Behind the darkened hall, year by year, there is no
lover to keep

I sneak out past security. The E.R. is my final
destination

Where I am from
the old streets
do not exist

Where is my son

---

Clearing a Space

Patrick Frank

Having gone from sleeping in the parking lot of an
interstate truck stop, to living in a few homeless
shelters, to inhabiting a single room, spring has
finally touched me in Northampton

At dawn, when I walk to the coffee shop alone, there
is a kind of luminosity in the air, a deep glow, a
hint of tremulousness in new leaves and dark branches
I have been up all night cleaning my cramped living
space and discarding many things

I have been clearing a space in my single room, and in
my heart

---

Trilogy

Patrick Frank

1

In the check cashing and pay-day loan store, this is
our last hope to get some money. We line up with
others who hide their desperation. The clerk counts
our money with a smile, the same clerk I remember
from years ago, behind a set of bars. We may still be
forced to park on the street overnight

2

The old lady, smoking a cigarette on the stoop... She
the motel clerk, welcomes us to town

The owners are away, so her homeless friend comes by
When the owners return, they will watch us like hawks
and may fire her

Just one look at two cats and old van is enough

3

Stranded again, running out of money. This time I am
not alone. I have you.
A mist of rain falls. Now we are
in deep twilight

We are strangers to the garage man, and we are broke
Our car has died and I must protect you

---