Ann Arbor
Glitchy copies
of Hitchcock
on VHS, surrounded by
a weekend’s mess, while you’re
muting Morse code,
calculating equations,
& mixing chemistry in your head
This town’s never dead,
but that doesn’t mean we
can’t gleam & dream as spectres,
window browsing a butterfly
Gibson behind stained glass,
followed by a
limited budget lecture;
we walk away empty-pocket
& handed,
& I forget about it
once we pass
Out of sight, out of mind,
you say when I wonder aloud
about people we met on past
road trips, our eggshell yellowed walls
still lined with their postcards, some will
forever remain unsigned
A tee shirt vendor shares my shades
& explains his artwork
& process
in extensive detail
while I recount horror stories
of bygone days working retail,
& we watch the sun fade
together
in silence
Jam band music reminds us
of the effectiveness of
dancing away hunger pangs,
of losing yourself in a hickory tinted haze,
of all the dotted
small towns we love being stuck in,
& how most of our blood
will always belong to the heart
of Michigan
(2016 ish)
Thistle Thoughts 
Beautiful!
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Thanks, Nick
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Love it 🙂
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Thank you
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It’s different! I like it!
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👍 thanks
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You’re welcome
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I thought I knew the title, then def knew I had by the “shared my shades” line 😎 thanks for resharing this 😃 xxx
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Sightly rewritten, & much better I feel. Thank you!
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*slightly 🙂
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It’s a pretty town and the intellectual hub of the state from what I’ve seen.
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I had an enjoyable visit. I’d go again. Michigan is my motherland.
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that last line says much– When your blood (bloodline perhaps) belongs to the heart of a place. Hometown! Thanks for sharing.
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Thank you
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Dancing away hunger! This is such a feel good poem
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Thank you
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A profound poem with a light manner!
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