The Ongoing Poem Series About the Summer of 2006 Continues Today on Poetry Thursday

August 10, 2006
Today at work I saw two men

There was a man in the kitchen
one of numerous new people
I recognize vaguely but don’t really know
rinsing a bunch of big pieces
of green bell pepper and bright orange carrot
under the running water in the sink
Like he’d taken one or two peppers
and one or two carrots
cut them roughly into thirds or quarters
and was holding three or four chunks in each hand under the faucet

Then there was another man
sitting in a meeting
whose skinny little Tintin arm was visible silhouetted
through the thin pale green sleeve of his shirt
as he reached out to type
while sitting in front of a window
It was an almost impossibly touching sight
melancholy and vulnerable and endearing