Solstice Notebook

SOLSTICE NOTEBOOK

Yuri checks out the Jeep Compass

at Enterprise with free upgrade,

adding that Cubs tickets pay street prices

the week pulse becomes part

of our language. Our morning walk,

the meditation on violence

part of the daily step. First words

coming from the sky, descending

into O'Hare, Karen's

Chief Joseph Vest for Children of Sandy Hook

before me, as she turns the Jeep

towards I-294 Tollway to Indiana.

Black interior in the ride,

indoor skydiving on the left.

Sandy Hook names sewn into the lining,

grandkids growing out of their clothes

into soccer shoes and baseball hats.

90.9 Jazz on NPR Chicago--

12 December 2012 to June Orlando,

now solstice sun shines on us all,

a Stevie Wonder song, Creepin',

songline in this lane, grandkids

modeling the Dream Vest, reading

the sewn poems of Yeats and Blake

into Chief Joseph's pocket walk.

Somewhat lost getting off the plane,

beside the restroom, a bookstore,

tipis at eye level, Jim Welch's Fools Crow

signaling, leading me to Thich Nhat Hanh's

How to Walk before me on the counter--

some summer count this--eat a Chicago

dog with Karen, replace lost Notebook

at Target, "Feel your feet solid on the Earth,"

"White Man's Dog was restless..." merging,

my traffic lane, on the highway

walking, out of Chicago to Indianapolis.

Jim Bodeen

21-22 June 2016