a perfect day
my knees are broken
sky is blinding
your hair flying
in the slipstream
a perfect day
my smile spreading
the famine growing
wheeling over
a rolling horizon
a perfect day
by the silent tracks
past the dead dog
the engine crying
the joyous chorus
a perfect day
the land of plenty
a hacking cough
the power off
the golden afternoon
a perfect day
back stove up
oats sprouting
sunshine bleeding
through the curtains
a perfect day
knuckles scraped
the yowling hammer
frozen Monday
that never ends
a perfect day
smokestack breath
smell of coffee
fumbled shoelace
the crashing dumpster
on the perfect day
right now
racing garbage
to the street
as the truck roars up
on the perfect day
bills almost paid
the war pounding on
the worst neglects
listed and ready
for the perfect day
when all is caught up
the illness healed
blanket spread
picnic laid out
for the perfect day
that rolls up
out of nowhere
catastrophe dancing
cymbals crashing
on the perfect day
love forty-eight
hate zero
a hippie dream
and holding hands
on the perfect day
when it’s only
a car backfiring
and they’re really
laughing with me

__________

from the collection the majesty of the past (Buy Me Lunch, 2009).  Hudson is Professor Emeritus of Pee-wee Herman Studies at Travis McGee College in Jackson, MS.

Bob Hudson, Poetry