-of the outside, linked to the inside-

not because both were found across the street

or that the crowded clotheslines traveled that way

or that the gas station’s leaded fumes

cloaked the atmosphere inside and out

or because the pane of the baker’s oven waited

a stone’s-throw from the supper table––

but because the distance was measured
from the inside to the outside and back again

where as nothing of the inside was withheld,

nothing of the outside was left behind.

the hallways were linked to the avenues

navigated by those of us recording the observations
as well as by those of us who weren't.

Quequechan