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joetheplumberpoet.com - 7/13 Poem of the Month
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7/13 Poem of the Month
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7/13 Poem of the Month

                      Two Men, Two Sidewalks

He had not yet awakened, he lay in an uncomfortable curl;

There on the sidewalk…

He was sheltered in the slight alcove just above the entranceway.

In a sardonic twist of irony, it once served the unemployment office…

Encased in clothes not fit for the straw man in the cornfield,

This man lay asleep, unaware that this day’s light revealed his plight…

A rush of thoughts pelted my routine,

For a moment my day had been paralyzed;

How does a fellow human end up there?

How do we pass him by with wonderment?

The next day held a different sidewalk, a different man.

He had white hair, a full white beard.

He was just lying there, awake…

The thoughts were back, what was his story?

Then as pondering led to perception,

He was weeding his flowerbed.

This sidewalk, this man, told a different tale,

It blended in to the life I wanted to see, I understood…

This man was a restaurateur; the garden graced his restaurant,

Two men, two sidewalks; a restaurateur,

 And a nameless man who simply stops us, but for a moment…

              Joseph James     6/5/2013
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