Katherine M. Searle: Street Scene

Katherine McLeod Searle teaches eighth grade language arts and English studies at JB Young Intermediate School where she has taught for the past 27 years. She earned a BA at the University of Iowa and MA in creative writing from Western Illinois University. She is the current president of the Quint City Poets, an IL/IA Quad Cities area writers' group, and also serves as the group's webmaster. She has been a Mississippi Valley Poetry Contest judge and grand prize winner (twice), appeared on Paula Sands Live, and interviewed for Bruce Carter's Art Talks on WVIK-FM. Her poetry has appeared in Lyrical Iowa, the University of Iowa's Daily Palette, The Aesop Review, The Ethical Spectacle, and Writing Raw. Clearly, writing continues to be a force in her life.

In this poem, she takes us to place most have not seen or choose to turn away from. The unfolding of events here is like shuffling cards almost in slow motion; she takes us to an unknown and yet does not judge.

Street Scene

I see him
early in the morning
when the heat
is but a promise

He stands at the corner
turning in precise circles
waiting to cross

A woman’s bathing suit
cut off jeans
tall black socks
and bejeweled flip flops
complete his outfit
accessorized
by a woman’s purse
worn diagonally
across rounded shoulders

He does not make
eye contact

His straggly hair
lifts with the breeze
as he rakes
his grizzled beard
in concentration

before scampering
into the street

and gently lifting something shiny
a discarded CD
inspected thoughtfully
and tucked into his purse
like a bird
snapping up a found object
to build its nest