Peter Mladinic

The pencil pusher pushes a yellow pencil,
and watches the world go by,  tonight 
two friends on horses in a stable
that looks like a barn.  A tag-along,

nervous around horses, the pencil pusher
wants the good life, the feel of fingertips
pushing the pencil across the desk,
and, pencil in hand, the feel of writing:

“I jogged on a levee above the Ouachita
and saw a houseboat; no one came
out of the bushes and grabbed me.”
The pencil pusher hopes when the riding 

lesson ends they can go out and eat 
spaghetti and meatballs at Patsy’s 
in Fairview.  The pencil pusher hopes 
someday to meet Eleanor Roosevelt,

say, at an armory where she can mingle
with people, and get her autograph.
The pencil pusher has rock n roller Eddie
Cochran’s, and poet James Schulyer’s.

The pencil pusher isn’t a collector, 
is with the Hays, joined by Dale
on a long bench.  Rita seems a natural, 
born to ride horses, like she’s been riding 

since old enough to walk. Such is an 
early evening in a life. The pencil pusher
pushes a yellow pencil in a warehouse, 
all day at a desk sees wood pallets, 

boxes with books with pages of words.
Rita dismounts, looks at the horse.
The pencil pusher recalls D H Lawrence:
“so silent they are in another world.”

Peter Mladinic

Peter Mladinic’s fifth book of poems, Voices from the Past, is due out in November 2023 from Better Than Starbucks Publications.  An animal rights advocate, he lives in Hobbs, New Mexico, United States.