22 Minutes
Frank Matagrano


There's a radio station that will give you
.........the world if you give them
........twenty-two minutes. I had five, enough
to hear about a plague of Mormon crickets
.........that turned Utah roads blood red

......and a thousand Iranians who took to the streets
of Tehran in the name of reform for the fifth night
........in a row. On my road—and I couldn't
.....tell you how many times I've gone
down it — reception grows weak the further you drive

from the city. Sometimes there's a cop waiting
......near the Thorndale exit for any reason to give you
a ticket and there's a turn near the 53 ramp
.........that's too sharp to take
if you are trying to go back in time

......to influence an earlier version
of yourself. You will be the only one
.........afraid of Afghanistan, reading
self-help books, preparing

......for sorrow. You will need two hearts:
one in your mouth, the other a spare
.........should the first wear down from so much
.......conversation, the epitome of give
.........and take, a dust bowl

of kindness. Tonight, everything is made
.....of light and every song on the radio has a chorus
.......reaching for heaven, so maudlin
.....and foolish that it almost seems
capable of making immensity

feel right, a feeling as strange as Chicago weather
.........and just as much a surprise, maybe
.......even beautiful in an awkward way like a wind
off Michigan Lake lifting a stranger's hat and taking it
........for a long walk in the August dusk.