This rest area
by the nature trail
could use some clean-up.
Spotting what people left behind,
my mind reconstructs the narrative.
Here’s an apple core.
I imagine someone
biting into the fruit.
Over there, an empty can of Coke.
I can see someone
enjoying the drink.
Under the oak tree, a condom wrapping.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom is an Israeli-born biologist who examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)