Sabbath

Stephen Priest

In the grocery day
parking lot,
windchime-toothed

meth-heads
fan themselves
with the afternoon tempest’s

leftover fronds—
with the reptile air
of long-seen acquaintances,

we pass without considering
each other’s needs.
Back at my condo,

under the dryer,
I know a gecko
skulks between lint.

Stephen Priest grew up in Dayton, Ohio and now lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. His poems have appeared in 32 Poems, Barrow Street, The Birmingham Poetry Review, Subtropics and other print and online journals, and his first poetry manuscript has been shortlisted for a number of book awards.