******* Courtyard: Two Views

Accompanied by my cousin

(my summer brother) I stood

on the second blue bridge,

never noticing the indoor

feeling. We stared at the man-

made everything: the brook

running atop a brick wall,

radiating the poolish scent

of chlorine; the rolling lawn

Kermit green in hot August;

Fountain triplets of water blue

Even as they splashed. A bench

Sat behind them, shadowed

By an arbor covered in what I

Believed were grapes. Each day

We watched that bench, wondered

What we would talk about if we

Could only sit there.

A brick building marred

The sky above. Who knew

In five years I would watch

The blue bridge from that shadowed

Bench, umbrella-ed not by grapes

But by malicious bees and sour purple

Flowers? My new companions

Not chosen friends, but bitter co-workers.

They envy the lawn for costing more

Than they do. I soon join their conversations,

Cursing the stream for its expensive

Chlorine habit. Now I notice

The indoor feeling.