Pantry

Cheap mulch the color of the desert,
full of pink flowers all bred to look
exactly the same, all trimmed
to restrain any grit; never able
to spread out toward the sun,
tamed to look beautiful
and never die.

At the edge of their world
is a parking lot where people
line up for food outside a blue building.
The gray awnings covered with dirt,
the people wearing coats leaking white down
like they were bags of cloud.

The clouds have always been free to see,
passing over all of them in their shapes
determined by God or some other force
beyond knowing, beyond sight.
The rusted chain link fence casts
a shadow across the wall of the building
cutting the blue into diamonds with rounded points.
The bells on the door gently chime every time it is open.