With drop shadow,

in sign painters’ terms

a typographer’s dream or

nightmare however you choose

on green painted narrow clapboard

letters a foot tall in red, outlined in white.

You might stare daily through

the seasons of snow, rain, the gloom,

the heated summers cracking the paint.

Each carefully brushed character

a sure professional’s mastery

of faded linseed,

displayed to the sidewalk,

North street cornering to Burdick.

On the glass Lyle Collison, scripted

flowing again each letter in heavy oil.

Behind that glass, and his heavy

wired lens, Lyle might look

the other way if you were

down on your heels.