Footprints

Jimmy Johnson puts tracks
on a CD, Oswald and Baxter
walk their wagon across the western desert,

put tracks outside the Tule Spring corral,
and I raise a plume of dust
on the track from Wash to Creeper.

When the dust settles Oswald and Baxter
are as misplaced to history as a gull
after the tide washes droppings

off the beach, as I am
when mizzle washes footprints in the ally
behind the noodle shop.

In the shop's dim light
Atsko follows Johnson's tracks
through the mid nineteen-forties.

She sees me coming through the door,
calls my usual order to the kitchen,
and goes back to Jimmy.