Poem: Downtown Rush

 

Downtown Rush

 

conformity, conformity,

shirt-button pips on dominos.

 

one stray truth could topple

the whole busy sidewalk of oxfords.

 

urbanites, faces full of micro-knots,

stretch into spurs of a bobbing fence:

 

we are pedestrian cattle, after all,

roped and herded

by our own internal wires.

 

i try to be lazy

in the bustle of twill and leather.

 

i dare, for just a moment,

to dangle in the stressed crosscurrents,

a jostled marionette.

 

a single human being

curls at the foot of a dumpster.

 

is such the price of wisdom?  

 

is it acuity

to become a bipedal piece of trash,

slovenly and unseen,

crumpled and unkempt?

 

the vagabond-guru.

it comes easy, a pill

to sugarcoat perambulatory denial.

 

and yet, it is true,

even a moment out of step

and one's feet become a nuisance,

wayward in this greedy lattice.

 

 

 

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10/6 ... mods 

NYC circa 1996