FedEx truck

when the FedEx truck
leaves the Park Pleasant
parking lot, nursing home
across the street,
disappears around the corner
I relax -- no package
today, for me


I hate to miss the FedEx truck
so difficult to arrange
a revisit -- means 
I must trudge down Grays Ferry
across the bridge, to retrieve 
my books from Japan


so I relax, breathe slowly,
no package today for me


I devote my attention
to the street, the sunset,
the skateboard kids doing
loop the loops, that odd
plopping noise of wood
slapping the pavement


and to the treetops
blinking with the last leaves


no sirens today, though
this morning I woke to 
helicopter buzz -- those
copters drone in place
for what seems like hours


later my wife told me
police vans, ambulance
at the SEPTA train stop


she saw what looked like
a body, under a tarp
the cops joking --"Shoulda
put it on the train, send
it downtown"


another death -- suicide?
justifiable homicide?
random shooting? an old
homeless man finally
kicking it in, on the 
wet street, station stop
another juncture on
the karmic wheel?


or simple end of the line
any meaning?


night comes down,
another tomorrow
and another,
and maybe the FedEx truck