The Long Poem Series About the Summer 2006 Does Not Stop (Yet)

August 17, 2006
In theory I don’t like people in the aggregate

(nor perhaps in the particular either but that’s another story)
nearly as much as others seem to do
But then sometimes humans just strike me
as so very charming and make me smile

This morning for example
folks were setting up
for the pseudo farmers market outside the sad little mall
and there were two girls
one standing on the sidewalk next to a table stacked up with melons
and the other standing on the back of a flatbed truck parked at the curb
tossing the melons one by one out over the sidewalk to the girl by the table
Up and over they went
pale and green in a big wide arch
and the girl on the sidewalk would catch them and add them to her pile
They were clearly having a great time with this stunt
and it made me so very happy
even as it seemed to make most of the other pedestrians very nervous

Then right after that
there was a young man walking up the street
reading The Cider House Rules as he walked along
I’ve never been able to do that
walk and read at the same time
and always wished that I could
The way he did it was
to hold the book at about rib-level
nearly parallel to the ground
so he could look down at the words or out at the world in front of him
alternatingly without changing position
He was near the beginning of the book
and already deeply engrossed in it

These people appealed to me so much
just for being their regular old people selves
For engaging in larks and japes
because it pleased them to do so

image source is here