Looking Alive

Left alone
on
Bardstown Road
tucked in a
Vietnamese noodle house
slow cars and clouds
tossing
grey paintings
outside the
glass panes
Buddha watches
from the
corner coppered pennies
and stale
lollipops
perch on his
fat belly
maybe the secret
to his smile
is in the bottom
of my
jasmine tea
alive existing
here waiting
among
winter curtains for
summer to
open steadily
from the
cracks
in the bricks.

Nikki Lockhart