I play leapfrog with the bus
down 15th Avenue —
It stops for passengers,
I forge forward,
sometimes coasting, sometimes climbing.
It’s not my choice of game,
dwarfed, as I am,
by my opponent’s size

Somewhere along the long climb
up to 90th,
I sense it must have turned,
leaving me to the scent of lilacs
and the quiet waving
of the backlit grass.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 7, 2014