shopping cart
i was walking on the lowest speed on the treadmill
staring out the window at a shopping cart stranded in a snow bank
what will it become?
a two story home for two silvery squirrels?
maybe a catch all for empty coffee cups
or a lost and found for mismatched mittens
it might become a rickety sled
or returned to the store by a good person, or someone who does good things in public
or maybe it’ll sit all winter, metal rusting
and lose its purpose in the snow
maybe it’ll snow so hard it will disappear
and everyone will forget about it until spring comes and the world thaws
and day by day small metal corners of the basket will be revealed
and everyone will wait in earnest to see what it is
until they realize it’s just a cart and they will move on and leave it there
while mushrooms bloom between the wheels