Middle Beginnings
(Anne Carson’s advice to writers: ‘Start in the middle.’)
We begin here, as if we had options
we’re always middling yet sometimes imagine
a startling original opening with a decisive even perfect finish.
What’s the magic in beginnings? While driving west
to Spokane, is Yakima just another exit, a drive-through,
or a real beginning? Something unexpected.
If we hadn’t been here before, can we be here now?
We shuffle our aging Yakima memories.
Lunch at Ray and Bob’s Short-Stack Café, opened since
we were here last; used to be Elma’s Faster Diner, says our waitress
who was in Elementary School then, now on her second divorce.
A menu of food and drink not yet existent
except as learned recipes and ingredients
in bags boxes or as ‘fridge-citizens
the Cook is out back on smoke break
watching a falcon overhead on fly-by
each wing-stroke a middle beginning.
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