04-15-2019, 09:44 PM
Nowhere
I assumed it was alive and I assumed
it was human, the figure curled
fetal on the front steps of the shelter.
Later, a blue-shirted man walked toward me
wearing food service or first responder
or surgical gloves.
He carried a Styrofoam cup
as if it were a urine sample.
I crossed the street in mid-block.
He did too, and soon passed me,
then waited at the corner for the light
despite there being no cars.
I crossed and kept walking. When
the light changed, so did he.
By the middle of the next block
he caught and passed me again.
Papers protruded from a back pocket
of his black jeans – could have been
boarding passes, tax notices,
or blood test results.
I once had a blue shirt - work shirt,
and once my beard was dark
like his.
An orange in his left hand–he carried it
like a dead sparrow, or a cup of fruit,
or a vitamin pill bottle now empty.
I am certain that he did not regard me.
I am certain I have never been him.
We stand side by side, traffic
from both directions.
I assumed it was alive and I assumed
it was human, the figure curled
fetal on the front steps of the shelter.
Later, a blue-shirted man walked toward me
wearing food service or first responder
or surgical gloves.
He carried a Styrofoam cup
as if it were a urine sample.
I crossed the street in mid-block.
He did too, and soon passed me,
then waited at the corner for the light
despite there being no cars.
I crossed and kept walking. When
the light changed, so did he.
By the middle of the next block
he caught and passed me again.
Papers protruded from a back pocket
of his black jeans – could have been
boarding passes, tax notices,
or blood test results.
I once had a blue shirt - work shirt,
and once my beard was dark
like his.
An orange in his left hand–he carried it
like a dead sparrow, or a cup of fruit,
or a vitamin pill bottle now empty.
I am certain that he did not regard me.
I am certain I have never been him.
We stand side by side, traffic
from both directions.