Passage

Walk

I
Along the river
the little lady takes her morning walk
in her black gauze pajamas
with the flared and split and decorated
pants cuffs.
Now another lady comes toward us
with identical black pants
and the two of them look together at the sky
as they pass.

II
A fortune teller is waving her arms,
and so her cape,
in the beating sun of the square,
“Let it go! I said Let it Go! Just let it Go!”
“Yes Mother, you right, I said you Right!”
from the huge black man walking beside her,
hands raised from the elbows
as if to call a witness.
The other guy looks away.

III
Whuonk! whuonk!
the man pushes with both hands
on his car horn
at the unmarked cop car that's blocking the street
on purpose.
The cop is oblivious,
the other drivers find it humorous.

IV
The film crews are comically struggling
with their tarps in the sudden splashing storm.
To hail the hail,
the bicycle man comes out of the shop,
“Bring it down, yeah!
Hail, Hail!
Yeah it's hail!”
pumping both fists in the air.

V
She told me:
“He has her now,
and I have you-know-who.
I guess it's OK,
but I still love him so...”
Nothing
I can say but,
“Sweet dreams, my love.”
“Thank you, sweetheart.”

VI
I sit and smoke in the twilight in the courtyard.
The datura displays every stage of its falling trumpets.
The two sturdy old men say
“alright” to each other,
abandon the kitchen
and ascend to their upper chambers.