The Young Man on the Park Bench by Mike James

                after Richard Brautigan

His hands are small
but his thumbs
are large. 

His thumbnails grow 
larger every day. 
He keeps them gleamingly painted 
with a broad brush. 

He is, “reading a copy of Flight Handbook
as he dreams 
of bird-like mannerisms.”
The bird-like mannerisms, 
a bit part of who he is. 
He loves to read and dream. 
He wants to catch a ride somewhere. 
Those thumbs, 
half of what he needs. 

Mike James makes his home outside Nashville, Tennessee and has published widely. His many poetry collections include: Red Dirt Souvenir Shop (Analog Submissions), Journeyman’s Suitcase (Luchador), Parades (Alien Buddha), Jumping Drawbridges in Technicolor (Blue Horse), First-Hand Accounts from Made-Up Places (Stubborn Mule), Crows in the Jukebox (Bottom Dog), My Favorite Houseguest (FutureCycle), and Peddler’s Blues (Main Street Rag.) He served as an associate editor of The Kentucky Review and currently serves as an associate editor of Unbroken.