Tim Skeen
This Is the Picture

The flea market’s set up
in the Foodland parking lot.
A woman reclines on a lawn

chair under a pickup tailgate.
Her husband watches
over a velvet Elvis, really,

which leans against a tire.
In the background,
the mountains are covered

with trees thick as hair on a
squirrel’s back.  It’s as if their house
must be like a giant sifter,

moving back and forth,
and all that settles
in the basement is for sale.

Tim Skeen, author of Kentucky Swami, teaches creative writing at California State University, Fresno.