Thirty Ways of Looking at a Vagabond

I.
What, exactly is there to look forward to?—
Long days of eggish sun and unrelenting heat,
where cool breezes are nothing more than vagabonds
waiting to hop the next jet stream north.

II.
Vagabond sparks fly through the gathering dark,
brilliant yellow on deep violet.

III.
As we listen, my vagabond brain
starts nicknaming all of her family members, too—

IV.
From the first page I was a vagabond
aboard an express train, dusty and sweet.
There was no stopping until we got to the end of the line.

V.
There were tales of long car rides with unruly siblings,
games lost at the last minute,
vagabond pets,
cousins who wouldn't leave,
sightseeing in the pouring rain,
parents who forced their children
out of bed for all manner of sunrise services,
grandparents who insisted that reading at the table was rude,
and television shows that simply disappointed.

VI.
Unlike the vagabond
only concerned with the road ahead,
I worried.

VII.
It was a flexible deadline,
more along the lines
of a vagabond's ETA.

VIII.
How surprised was I…
to feel a little vagabond smile
sneaking across my face?

IX.
Poor vagabonds, they spent the winter outside.

X.
Vagabond weeds had set up camp
on the abandoned rectangle.

XI.
Loads of tiny acorns,
each with a pale green filament,
extended hopefully into the soil.
Sorry to disappoint them,
I gave them a vagabond's chance
to put down roots somewhere else.

XII.
After one unsuccessful lap of the lot
and a near collision
with a vagabond shopping cart
I went home

XIII.
There stood a well-scrubbed young man
in a gaudy lime and white windbreaker
over shirt and tie. No vagabond he.

XIV.
There are lots of worms vagabonding all through the soil,
which I hear is a good sign.

XV.
I lay awake as one vagabond worry
after another tightened its grip on my gut.
XVI.
I hit the road, ride the rails,
or travel along the open trails.
I've set up camp at Walking the Dog,
but when May comes I'll leave this blog.

XVII.
Haricots verts and tomato
garnished a salad of14
vagabond spring greens

XVIII.
I'll never be a comfort zone vagabond
roaming merrily into the untested.

XIX.
Most of my passwords are vagabonds
on the express train to amnesia.

XX.
We took a vagabond's side trip into infamy
before we ever made it
to plain old heroes.

XXI.
My suggestions hold no interest for her;
they're like vagabonds asking for a handout—
she pretends not to hear them.

XXII.
In forty-eight hours,
my experience as a vagabond teacher
will commence.

XXIII.
I keep my own opinion
as elusive as a vagabond in a train yard.

XXIV.
Vagabond butterflies
fluttered in my stomach.

XXV.
Phantom ticks crawl on you—
every vagabond itch or twinge
is probably another one
trying to bury its mandibles
in your flesh for a blood meal.

XXVI.
I know in my vagabond's bones
that the end of the year
will be a messy departure
from what's already been done.

XXVII.
Vagabonds aside for a minute…

XXVIII.
True to the vagabond life
of a military man
they’ve been posted to another state.

XXIX.
I allow the conversation
to go vagabond—
taking us where it will.

XXX.
We end
with a vagabond dispatch
from the front lines
of public education.