Lunchtime in the Plaza

(a fountainside adventure: I ate nothing and enjoyed it)

Large men like cartoon-animals bounce down the street
On herky-jerky animated lunchtime feet
And though their cartoon-watches have no time for me
I sense this is their lunchtime and their lunch is free

Two men teeter on the rim of the fountain's pool
Patiently dragging nets on sticks and gathering
Such leaves and coins as found their way there to keep cool
Or which were cast with reverence in offering
I wish I had found those coins before these men did
Spending money so well-laundered must be splendid

The out-of-towners hit our roundabout and go
Out-of-their-minds as well somehow it seems to me
Strapped in unseemly haste they find themselves to be
Here where it is lunchtime and we always walk slow
Especially after eating when like cattle
Our large men herd back (less bouncy now) to battle

My poetry is not right for the Plaza Review?
I thank God for this (even as I thank God for you)!
Someday we ought to print our own alternative voice
Of those who really live here or who come here by choice

We balance here on the blade of time to keep things real
Newsprint is for recycling so they will not have me
I am recycled anyway but I was born free
(St. Joseph's charged a fee so my father found a deal)

You there! Sleeping on that bench! I like your perspective
Your life (like plastic surgery) remains elective
(Though here plastic surgery has become de rigueur
For those who live forever as if they never were)
You simply do not do those things which you do not choose
For this policemen wake you and find you defective

But we know life is not some race to win or to lose
I (who defected long ago) find you reflective
Through the mirror you have sought your own reality
And having found it here you choose to share it with me

So I am not for everyone? "For Madmen Only!"
Madwomen too (perhaps like you?): for I get lonely

+Steven Curtis Lance



Copyright MMVII