Working in the City
Today I saw a blind woman
Running for the bus,
Her long stick scraping the ground
In front of her as she waved it down,
Facing in the wrong direction.
Last week I saw a young man
Lying in an alley.
People looked curiously and walked on.
I prodded him awake and he said he had
been drinking. It was ten am.
This morning on the bus
I saw a woman pull a dictionary from her bag
Musty and yellowed with age.
She looked through a page of ‘A’s
Before gently shutting it and slipping it back.
Yesterday I passed the brothel
On the corner near my office.
A tattooed lady loitered
By the open door, dim light behind.
She didn’t give me a second glance.
One day I saw a pregnancy test kit
Discarded on the ground.
The two pink lines were quite strong.
Someone was ecstatically happy, or perhaps not.
Thrown away or accidentally dropped?
I walk around the city because I am bored.
My manager says that a good admin assistant
Would have found out so many things.
I tell him that I am not a good admin assistant.
He says “I know”.
March 2008
This poem started in March of 2008 during a brief stint as an admin assistant, but has been added to since then with more observations from my walking around the city.
Whoooo Hooo. I have just been advised that this poem has been accepted for publication by the Independent Weekly. Not sure when but probably Friday week.
That is wonderful news Duckie! You deserve it, it is a wonderful poem.
Thank you for those comments Jo. Each little vignette described in the poem actually happened. If you look as you walk around the city, you really do see some interesting things!