Walkway Maintenance

By Frank Kearns

I’m on a rigid schedule tonight
no second beer no savoring another
hour-long episode of a popular police procedural

I have an early morning date with a seven inch hand grinder
and a section of concrete walk that has slowly lifted over the last
five years so that the ladies who come for my Sunday
poetry workshops are now in danger of tripping themselves
and the thought of the mail woman in her rush across the lawn
causes me worry that cannot be ignored

The walk bends around the olive tree
old when we moved here thirty years ago
the walk is a relative newcomer and the tree
has made its displeasure known
by causing cracks that we let go until
a graceful section took a definite skyward tilt

So I’ll get up early and rent the grinder
and bend over that corner for a couple of hours
If all goes well I’ll have it leveled
before the heat gets too extreme
I’ll return the grinder early enough
and only get charged for half a day

That should fix things for another thirty years
The olive tree is in no hurry