Someone Else's

8 October 2009

No one decided to titivate our walk

to the bus stop with a two-days-gone raccoon

and broken fluorescents. Nevertheless,

the flattening lump in the road

gave me a shiver-- unnecessary in today’s

decidedly crisper autumn chill.

Carelessness, really, perhaps a neglected brake-check,

lack of attention to detail on trash day,

and our daily trek was muddied with the detritus

of someone else’s poor judgement.

We did not choose to put the raccoon in the street,

nor the glass in the grass at the bus stop--

neither had we chosen to remove them.

Chastened, we took up the less offensive burden; hoped

someone else would own up to the raccoon.