In the air

 

Life is tenuous in San Jacinto.
We passed several makeshift
Living spaces in bushes near
Enough to the road so these squatters
Can walk to the store, perhaps
Redeem a sack full of bottles,
Perhaps cash a check at the bank.

I urged Ben on.  They might have
Guns and Ben is huge to
Someone waking up to us
Approaching at dawn.  Ben
Heeds almost everything I
Say now and stayed near my
Elbow.  There is an underground

Of death here we only hear of when
Someone we need dies.  They are
Whisked away before the neighbors
know, quietly, wrapped in a curtain
Of white very like someone on the
Way to ER, very like someone still   
Living her seventy years weak but

Not necessarily dead.  It is as though
She might go and then come back,
But at the river there is a smell that can’t
Be hidden.  Ben and Duffy want to
Investigate and it is difficult to get
Them to come away.  I pass these
Bushy places like them sniffing the air.