AFTERWALKING

 

AFTERWALKING

Cookies for friends

Spicy Raisin, Raisin Puffup,

followed by Carrot Cake Cookies

with three-and-a-half cups carrots

Walking the development, taking pictures

in the near dark, afterwalking even walking,

even, like landscaping, a bobcat

camoflaged with a motor running

I telll my friends I like a dangerous cookie

Karen asking as I walk out the door,

Are you walking the development

Out there--

I re-tie my boots

tighten things up

kneel in the snow, take my gloves off,

walk back to that sold house

and take that one picture

before fitting my fingers

back into the gloves

frozen notes too thumb-written

on the iPhone

Afterwalking I say to my friend in a letter

Afterwalking is a noun

it’s a practice, it’s ovenwork

Jim Bodeen

10 December 2022