Twin mattresses stand sentinel
Beside the rusted blue dumpster
Dirty and limp with exhaustion
The paved road
Cracked and dusty (usually)
With chunks of missing blacktop
Gurgles gritty water
Along its length
Encountering a throttled plastic bottle
Head ripped off
Its label torn and faded
A jagged piece of metal---still shiny & new
Reaches from its wet grave
A pink the color of Hubba Bubba bubble gum
Decorates a scented lotion bottle
Cursive writing in pearl gray
Amidst a lighter pink
Murmurs the exact scent and its ingredients
An orange pointed cap
The color of traffic cones
Men At Work construction signs
And the middle section of candy corn
Leans against the curb of the sidewalk
She steps high
In her pink polka-dotted rain boots
To clear the height
As she reaches the school
They usher her in
As if they hadn’t just seen her
24 hours before
And still she has no teacher for Spanish