1201 Boylston Street
by Chris Middleman
Too young for children,
they flex parental instincts
with leashed pups, tugging away
toward Dunkin coffee cups
degrading in public park mulch
At 8 PM, they’ve finished work or grad classes
and gather in front of high-rent apartments
so their dogs can sniff one another -
facilitating rare conversation
Slowly, they open up about
where they went to school, what their major was,
and what they ate and drank there
Chatting, swatting away mosquitoes, having traded
cigarettes for little dogs in their 5 mature years since college
CHRIS MIDDLEMAN has been writing since his high school days in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. Having recently relocated to Seattle from Boston, his work has appeared in issues of Perigee, Eclectica, The Orange Room Review, Pemmican, and The Commonline Project.
