February 8, 2010

Downtown Observations





i

Retired,
their grey hair
blends into
their beige coats
which vanish into
their faded brown pants.
They walk hand in hand
in lockstep
followed by a homeless man
dressed in last year’s black.


ii

Only after the couple moves in
do they notice the sound of trains
through their triple
paned windows
only then do they notice the homeless
through their car windows,
hear the baseball fans
yelling in support
of their teams,
through the wall of stale beer.


iii

Covering every surface,
cawing from
flag pole to
light standard,
flapping from palm fronds
to inner city balconies
laughingly fanning
the winds of winter
across the concrete canyons,
the murder of crows
waits for spring.


iv

Skidding into the corner at sixth
knee down,
crouching astride
as if he were in Le Mans,
as if he were going to live forever,
he dodges a box truck,
clips a little old man
and his cart
only to slide into the curb
and wrap himself around
next weeks onions.

5 comments:

  1. very useful article. I would love to follow you on twitter. By the way, did you learn that some chinese hacker had hacked twitter yesterday again.

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  2. I really loved this!!! I could see the couple perfectly.

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  3. I found this a very touching piece. Oh that it weren't so true.

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  4. You catch so well the couple and their endeavour to move into a new area where they perhaps spent too much time on the comodities of the place and not the people they share the neighbourhood with. I've seen this happen over and over again when retired people move down to the Caribbean. They think weather and warmth. They are always disappointed that people their do not welcome them into their lives.

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  5. I read it as more upbeat than your prior bloggers. It seemed they (the couple) were finally really seeing where they lived.

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