Contact The Author: rdlbarton@gmail.com

Ron. Lavalette's work has appeared in these fine publications:



Wednesday, November 08, 2017

Shelter

One Person's Trash (Online & Print) November 2017
-Previous version (Titled "Charlie") in *82 Review, March 2013

Charlie visits the Precious Savior
Bookstore, stocks up on all the latest 
offerings: Ticket To Heaven postcards, 
sticks of incense, The Greatest Hits 
Of The Grateful Faithful, featuring 
the Certain Resurrection Choir.  
He goes for a walk on Water Street, 
his head and headphones buzzing.  
 
Charlie folds himself into a corner,
contemplates nations murdering
nations.  He no longer aims or claims
to be a general; thinks instead about 
suicide, rain, and the sidewalks, running.  
Smoke rises near the airport, insubstantial,
like a ghost rises from a cooling corpse.
Charlie, airborne, cools his heels, thinks about
jets and vapor trails.
 
Back at the shelter, he’s got a fan                                                   
and a paint-by-number Jesus.
At night they find a little harmony:
the fan spins around and 
the room spins around and Jesus, 
pleased, lets Charlie go to sleep.