Read Neon Literary Magazine #36 Page 5

  *

   

  Wolf In The Apartment Complex

   

  mid-fast-food late-shift

  second floor hallway

                  mostly quiet

   

  Wolf can smell chicken somewhere close

                  (203, 204, 206) //

   

  fluorescent hall-light ceiling-flickers

                 

                  television static

                  broken glass on hardwood, boot-crunched //

   

                  Wolf paws open a knobless door

                                  (214)

   

  broken sofa, no window-glass

                  wind howling

                                  cold

   

  // yellow street-light flashing

   

  Amy Schreibman Walter

   

  Image by "FOTOCROMO".

   

  On The Bus From East Dulwich To Oval

   

  It is the coldest night of the year, the man with pleated corduroys

  announces to his reluctant travel companions. He speaks the phrase with authority and a

  strange kind of passion, as if delivering wisdom from some holy book.

   

  Bananas are dying in the cold of Elephant And Castle tonight. Strawberries seem ill,

  sitting between icicles on tables of fake grass. Oranges shock me with their pallor. This

  night feels far too frigid for fruit.

   

  Soon it is Oval. The man with the corduroys carries his Tesco bags into the darkness, the

  bus returns to a collective silence.