by John Tracy
1.
Seen from the highway,
the tiger pair still grimace at the door,
but more fearful than ferocious now.
One summer we took matching pictures
sitting on their fearsome heads.
Now their skin blossoms
into tears of white plaster,
disappearing beneath falling snow.
2.
In the lobby
someone built a volcano scene,
a village of Monopoly homes
tucked into a corner
behind plastic palms.
Campy, we said,
but kept coming back
to see our house.
3.
The placemats matched
our birthyears to animals,
you with the dragons, I the rat.
Dragon and rat ordered the same,
joked the same,
and argued the same,
while years passed,
and the Jade Fountain persisted.
4.
One year, not long before they closed,
we didn’t visit our house behind the palms.
Now I slow traffic to look for the tigers,
wishing I could say I’m sorry,
wishing I could say they are ferocious.
But the Jade Fountain fades in the snow,
an early squall for this year
of which animal or beast is unknown to me.
© 2026 John Tracy All rights reserved.
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