The Spun Man

You have seen someone like him—
the spun man—
left foot loose from a lace-less shoe
paper clip where a pants button should be.

Most days I see him around 61st and 24th 
tracing parking lots in broken circles 
muttering about geraniums
and wide-open fields of grass
swaying, as he does, 
a rhythm that seeks to restore 
the connections in his head.

He crouches by a chain-link fence.
A dandelion has grown through the concrete.
He holds it tenderly, his body still.

SARA RITTER

Sara Ritter was an emerging poet and a lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest. A recent graduate of Pacific University, she completed an MFA in Poetry (2024). She has been published in the Poets of the Coast Anthology (2023) and served as a competition judge for the Writer’s Circle Desert Poets.