Pink Pearl

by Don Thompson

Image credit: Martin Fennema

The hills through endemic haze

always seem sketched by pencil

and then rubbed out

by an old, brittle eraser,

leaving a smudge

like that useless Pink Pearl

you had in school. Remember

how it made such a mess

of every error

you tried hard to correct?

Maybe God changed His mind

and wanted to undo us;

or just preferred the blurred look

for a world filled with mistakes

we can never make right.

Don Thompson has been writing about the San Joaquin Valley for over fifty years, including a dozen or so books and chapbooks. For more info and links to publishers, visit his website at www.don-e-thompson.com.