Waiting Room

Tim Stiles

Thin gray sweater.

Fuzzy white socks.

Trifocals. Toothbrush. Colgate.

Still-good 1978 Avon hair brush.

Her favorite Harriet Beecher Stowe.

 

All that—

Ma’s life in a plastic sack.

He holds it tight while we wait,

My father’s million-dollar bag.

Tim Stiles lives and writes in the San Francisco-Bay Area. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. His poems, stories and lyrics have been published/recorded throughout the USA and Great Britain. His poetry-photography collaboration with photographer Jay Tyrrell, entitled Botmerica: Repeat After Me, was published in 2016.

Issue XVII