I Don’t Know Where to Begin
Leanne McIntosh, Nanaimo, BC
Volume 40 Issue 1,2,&3 | Posted: April 25, 2025
so I tell you I sat on a seat
that ran parallel
to the length of the bus
tell you the man across from me
leaned on a shopping trolley
filled with flattened cardboard
tell you that I thought the driver
must have let him on without
paying because the man
across from me had the look
his jacket open, his pants
fallen down to his knees
as he sat quietly as though
waiting for someone
to pull them off over his shoes
like a child does when a mother
readies him for bed, and maybe
as this man’s mother once did
although now he looks more
like he could be someone’s
grandfather fallen on hard times
a dad who once thought he had
it all, a home, money, a job
a woman he loved and who loved
him until it became too hard
and I tell you when he got off
the bus the same place as me
then stopped, parked the trolley
and tried to pull up his pants
I helped him, gravity holding us
to the sidewalk, the wind
lifting autumn leaves, the stars
calling out so that what is on earth
swims like silver fish
Leanne McIntosh, Nanaimo, BC