209 (Emmanuels)

billy johnson shuffled up and down 209sweeping out front of the gas stationbringing shopping carts from the parking lot to the grocery storeinformal agreements bartering service for foodsmall towns are funnyup close and keep an arm's distancethe rumors werehis mom had a house he could've lived in but he preferred to live in a hut in the woods insteadhis parents divorced when he was young and he took them hostage for a day or he lived in the ceiling of the school auditorium for almost a yeari saw him hitchhiking once years later the school newspaper saidstanding on 209 near kingstonheaded back to stone ridgei pulled over to pick him upmy heart was racingi was yearning for a connectiona breaking of the inevitable barrier that seemed to divide him from the rest of ushe slept in a hole under five blanketsunder a lean-to built by the husband of a woman working at the grocery storetoday i saw a man pooping in the open air of tompkinswhere can you look?when will the reckoning be?the land un-grabbed?i know the wall is tenuousor that we're closer than we know

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