the formation of the blues

blue
green lights
that indicate the coffeemaker’s
waiting
where am I
debating bittersweet

maybe bitter like the smell
of mildew
or of certain herbs

sweet
as chocolate or
plain sugar from the bag

in consideration of the snack my
mother got
now and then
of
a sandwich with butter and sugar from
a sack

in the house

on the farm
the kind with after-rain
and the wheelbarrow that so much
depends
on

while the mother of my mother worked
in
a field
and that’s the lonely photograph
with very little spoken
for the story
to us
in the suburbs

where we could have learned
more than
minimal
of
hardship

c l couch


photo by Steve Busch on Unsplash

a kind of reference to “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams