Stealing Yeses Nancy Scott Email: nanscot9073@yahoo.com

My hands are cramped
from pushing your wheelchair
on the Wildwood boardwalk
without my white cane.

Your talk guides me
over vibrating grooves
through a sea of late-season tourists
that parts for your "forward,
left, right, clear"
and "oh-shit-stop."

I stop better than I steer,
but we need this risk,
you looking up to say where we go,
me listening to push or hold back.

The shopkeepers know
we will buy souvenirs-
A heart-shaped cherry box
with one unsanded inner corner,
seashell wind chimes,
soapstone dinosaurs,
half-price Peruvian sweaters,
statues of pilgrims.