Poem: Downtown Rush

 

Downtown Rush

 

conformity, conformity,

shirt-button pips on dominos.

 

one stray truth could topple

the whole busy sidewalk of oxfords.

 

urbanites, cheeks of micro-knots,

stretch into spurs of a bobbing fence:

 

we are pedestrian cattle, after all,

roped and herded

by internal wires.

 

i try to be lazy

in the bustle of twill and leather.

 

i dare, for just a moment,

to dangle in the crosscurrents,

jostled as a marionette.

 

one dirty human being

curls at the foot of a dumpster.

 

is such the price of wisdom?  

 

is acuity

a bipedal piece of trash?

slovenly and unseen,

crumpled and unkempt?

 

is the vagabond 

a simple guru?

it comes easy, this stereotype, 

a pill to sugarcoat 

our perambulatory denial.

 really, though, it is true,

even a moment out of step

and one's shoes become a nuisance,

wayward in the stress-greed march.

 

 

 

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12/7/24 ... mods  (impossible to work with ..)

10/27/24 ... mods

10/6 ... mods 

NYC circa 1996