poem: Glen’s Window Cleaning

GLEN’S WINDOW CLEANING

Gutter cleaning, pressure washing

moss removal, it’s all there

on the door of his truck with the

chrome tread plate tool box in the bed.

Glen is the type of guy, tidy beard

hair tied back who walks around

slashing the air with arms swinging

as if pulling himself forward

to some place always just ahead.

Does he have sympathy for them?

As he sluices water over the panes

up on his ladder Glen sees people

alone in the windows caught in traps.

Is it their fault they are caught in the trap?

They look back at him, unsurprised

to be seen, really it’s their window

after all, so Glen makes as though

he’s not there but he cannot unsee

like he cannot unknow because once

looking out his own window, night falling

as a tree fanned the grain of black leaves

against the sky, Glen was able to see

who might be watching.

Curtis Taylor