By Kirby Wright

Man on foot with bike shoes

Reminds me of a woman

In bright heels

 

Negotiating cobblestones.

I remember mother

Walking the plank

 

Down the hall,

Stilettos clicking toward

The master bedroom.

 

There were bills

Owed to the master,

Bills paid in flesh

 

After the curtains were drawn,

The AC fired up,

And the door locked.

 

The man with bike shoes

Wobbles a path

Strewn with white petals.

 

My mother wept

When the door swung open

And the AC quit blowing.

 

The aroma of baking bread

Drifts from the boulangerie.

The bike man wolfs a croissant.

 

Mothers stroller by

Discussing the weights

Of their babies.

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Kirby Wright was a Visiting Fellow at the 2009 International Writers Conference in Hong Kong, where he represented the Pacific Rim region of Hawaii. He was also a Visiting Writer at the 2010 Martha’s Vineyard Residency in Edgartown, Mass., and the 2011 Artist in Residence at Milkwood International, Czech Republic. His futuristic thriller The End, My Friend and his second poetry collection The Widow from Lake Bled, were both released in 2013. Also released in 2013 was Wright’s first collection of flash fiction: Square Dancing at the Asylum.