Discovery

She planned to write
a pretty poem about polish.
This feminist first manicure
and what it meant for her outspoken
disapproval of economic spending
on matters she deemed decidedly
non-critical to survival or career,
provided many poetic possibilities
as ripe as the summer’s last peaches.

Sighting half her small town’s
police force inside her apartment’s mail room,
complete with dog. Animal presence
automatically draws overdramatic mind
to Bull Connor and his tooth baring canines aimed
at civil rights seeking black boys.

All thoughts of
newly found sparkle
vanish.