"VAPORWARE"
by Cheryl Snell

From under the bridge, he watches
for his next best chance to track a future
bound to suture loose ends. He’ s hurled
onto the center island at rush hour.

Hard-drive riders pour off buildings
like steam. After a day spent stiffening
software to the texture of a thought, nobody cares
who stole the key to the executive washroom.

Aluminum swans of leftovers fall at the man’s feet.
He stoops to examine lichen cracking concrete. Rain
begins to fall; the weed’s scientific name screamed
in syllables of perfect Latin is absorbed by thunder.

Bystanders drive away without a rear-view glance,
gooseflesh rising where it will as cars plunge onward
through slick cellophane streets, a caravan of wipers
frantic to make the situation clear.

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Cheryl Snell has work in current issues of Thunder Sandwich, Pebble Lake Review, Worm 33, Snakeskin and Rock Salt Plum. The author of two chapbooks of poetry, Flower Half Blown (Finishing Line Press, 2002) and Epithalamion(Little Poem Press, 2004),she has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

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