Two Poems by Jay Frankston

In the Blink of an Eye

Blink
The family gathered around
the Thanksgiving table.
A golden brown turkey
mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce,
the clanging of silverware
and laughter all around.

Blink
The young mother
holding her newborn
and three young girls
sharing a rutabaga
on the hard soil
in the red African mud house.
The child cries.

Blink
The caregiver in her rumpled smock
hand feeding the old one
who lost his reality
when he lost his wife
and the life he had left
fell apart.

Blink and blink again
The reel of life
gives no explanation.



Travel

So the wheel turns
and the road bends
and time whizzes by
like the landscape
out the window of my life.
But the travel that takes place
is on the inside
and it's the coal that is shoveled
into the furnace of the locomotive
on the train I'm traveling on.