Who Lives There?

First of all, a news flash!

Remember my recent mention that I'd been interviewed by Conrad Balliet, of "Conrad's Corner" fame on WYSO, 91.3 FM?

Well, that interview is to be aired on WYSO tomorrow (Sunday, April 13) ... between 10:30 and 11:00 a.m. The interview itself runs only about five minutes ... but you might want to listen to the other portions of that program, too.

For those of you who live outside the range of WYSO's signal ... I understand that the program can be picked up online.*

As Conrad would say ... "Thanks for listening."

But now ... the business at hand:

Today's poem came to me on the bus, was largely written on the bus, because it took hold of me ... and wouldn't let go.

Over time, I became aware of that particular window, that struggling plant. It got so I was watching for that cracked window each day when my bus went climbing back up the hill on the way home.

I kept expecting to see someone at the window, watering the plant, turning it in the sunlight, or simply looking out at the passing traffic. But I never did.

Still, the plant hung on, seemed to be growing, leafing out slightly, and I kept wondering who lived there with it ... "what small measures of encouragement" they shared.

The poem, originally published in the literary journal, Poem, and now part of a manuscript in search of a publisher:

WHO LIVES THERE?

In an upstairs window,

below a sagging

gutter, beside siding

wind-peeled and flapping,

beneath a window shade

water-stained and torn,

behind a pane cracked

diagonally like a fragile

promise, sits a spindly

plant taking what sun

it can on a winter day,

while my bus struggles

in its uphill climb

toward a daily nagging

question: Who lives

there with this plant,

and what small measures

of encouragement do they

have to bridge the days?

© 2006

***

Today's word: encouragement

Afterthoughts ... in response to your comments:

* Thank you, Featheredpines, for providing the link readers can use to hear the WYSO interview through their computers (please note, folks, that the interview is scheduled somewhere within a broadcast that runs from 10:30 to 11 a.m. EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME, Sunday). Here's the link (you may want to copy and paste it in your browser):

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wyso/ppr/index.shtml