By Ron Riekki
I’m sure he’s never murdered anyone.
He has a book in his pocket and that’s a good sign.
The snow is falling on him, so he’s not a ghost.
He looks cold, so he’s human.
Maybe I’m the one to worry about,
staring at him through a window,
standing in my underwear,
a Detroit Lions lamp nearby,
which is the worst team in the history of organized sports.
And this guy as lonely as a chandelier in a mansion,
the boring white sky ceilings of the rich.
Ron Riekki’s books include U.P.: a novel, The Way North: Collected Upper Peninsula New Works (Michigan Notable Book, 2014), and Here: Women Writing on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. His play “Carol” was in The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2012, The First Real Halloween was best sci-fi/fantasy screenplay for the 2014 International Family Film Festival, and his story “The Family Jewel” was selected for The Best Small Fictions 2015.
