Introduction
Walking gets you from A to B and then C and back to A again. Walking works, unless you can’t walk, and then wheeling usually does the trick. Sometimes neither, even short ones work. Sometimes you can’t move. And sometimes you have to fly.
I know where to walk to get things done. I walk there often. You can walk as if you have someplace to go, even if you don’t, and then people move out of your way thinking you’re important. But I don’t walk that way. I walk like I have someplace to go but the where isn’t important.
Walking which paints itself into lines of thought and action converge on the stepping parts. Sometimes thinking is stepping. This sounds like walking is of major importance, and it is, but it isn’t the same as vital. Thomas Mann once said “Thoughts come clearly while one walks” but I disagree, to a degree. It’s possible to be walking and not even thinking. It’s why neurotics should take more walks: it’s easier to have a blank mind while walking than it is staring at the white(ish) wall in your apartment. The mind is busy making walking happen, rather than wishing for something soothing.
Walking is efficiency and meditation and calm in movement. Long walks, while epic, imply aimless and directionless point of view (or, simply, lack of cab or bus fare). A short walk can be to the point, like a witty quip, and can linger in the memory longer even as its importance is so trivial as to be stupid.
Can you walk to where you need to go? Not always. Can you walk to clear your head? Yes, definitely. Can you walk to Timbuktu? Not usually. Can you walk to save your life? Yes, and often we do.
Short Walk To The Mailbox
Down
the stairs.
Short Walk At Noon
Dinner will come,
soon
and I might be hungry then.
And there
is nothing
around here,
anyway,
to eat.
Short Walk To The Store
When you get there they’ll know your name.
Short Walk In Winter
There are rules.
From mounds but.
He lifted his leg.
And froze something solid.
Short Walk Along The River
She spent spades on her hair.
The little grin
that meets
the almost perfect love affair, now long gone out to sea.
Short Walk For Just The Thrill
puddles.
Short Walk To A Place Called Love
And back again.
Short Walk Home
He said,
“I have nowhere to go”
and that’s how I left him.
Short Walk To The Bathroom
And then
sitting down,
thinking
about pear pits.
Short Walk Looking Like Emily
Tossed and fab-
ricated as done.
Looking like her dreams awake.
Short Walk From The Wrong Subway Stop
The further you go
the farther it
all feels,
even as
the distance
counts so few
feet, you can
count them
on one hand
(but not really,
you’re too busy
thinking
about your mistake
and lose count
after 9).
Short Walk To The Pharmacy
It’ll all end
up
terminal.
Short Walk In High Heels
She falls down
and taps the town
red
backed by the hers
here.
Short Walk To The Next Town
This never happens.
Short Walk Too Early
It’s sufficient
to tread
lightly.
He stands
on the cusp
of it,
the new morning,
not even light out yet.
Short Walk As Helen Of Troy
It’s nice to
pretend
sometimes
but almost
always
ends in
never knowing
why.
Short Walk To Get An Eclair
Luckily,
the bakery
is such a
short
walk away
from here.
Short Walk, Reading
It’s funny
how in not looking
others can
continue
looking out
for you.
The bump-into
as a bruise,
a sometimes kiss,
and an acknowledgement
of walking as a means of
reading to one another
of the “yes, that’s not me,
it’s so me to be like that.”
Short Walk To Work
It’s gotten
shorter
since starting
to take the bus.
Short Walk As A Movie Never Watched
You try
and usually fail
to find the other things
that make walking
interesting
to someone else
watching.
Short Walk With A Bitter, Lonely Old Lady
There is nothing to talk about.
Short Walk To The Salon On Your Lunch Break
And back
again,
again,
because the
wait
would last
longer
than an hour.
Short Walk To Where She Comes From
The braids
and bras
still don’t
start to make
sense.
And he still says,
“this wasn’t worth
walking to”
even as she
is in the middle of
shaving herself
clean.
Short Walk Towards Facts
And somehow
the facts were
missing, or
so obvious
as to appear
missing.
I missed them still.
Short Walk Back From The Mailbox
Up
the stairs.
