Poetry

I like to write a variety of things, and have tried my hand at poetry here and there.

This is one of the last poems I wrote, and I really like how it turned out.

The inspiration was a photograph of some windows.  I thought it was the windows on the garages near where we used to live on McKinley Avenue, next door to the old Bunker Hill office building.  I imagined these windows were "eyes", and this is what I imagined these eyes saw as they gazed upon my hometown.

Keeping My Eyes on Kellogg
By Carol Woolum Roberts

Hard hat, silver lunch pail, Thermos.
Booted feet shuffling by on the way to the dry.
Cigarette snuffed out on the pavement.
Raised hands in greeting.
Keeping my eyes on Kellogg.

Brown hills, scrubby brush, rust-colored soil.
Smoky haze lingering on top of mountain peak.
Hills aglow with fiery lava.
New formations created each night.
Keeping my eyes on Kellogg.

Lead, arsenic, cadmium.
Milky white creek runs through center of town.
No one dares explore the banks.
Full of poisons from years gone by.
Keeping my eyes on Kellogg.

Neon signs, swinging doors, music blaring.
No parking places uptown on a Friday night.
Payday and everyone’s pockets are full.
Raising glasses and swinging fists.
Keeping my eyes on Kellogg.