Sidewalk Poem #10

Suddenly the City

I live in seems interesting
as if I were on vacation here
and feeling indulgent
towards the human race, its way of living in cities and
tearing up roads so the traffic has to be
re-routed around a collapsing white mesh barrier
as in this intersection here.
The people of this city
walking back and forth on the sidewalks
each one having gotten up and dressed this morning
look like this, this
movie, almost, of people crossing the street.
The questions,
is this scene in any way rewarding to look at?
e.g. architecturally, in terms of city spaces and human interest; and
are things diverse enough here? and
are these people, in general,
older or younger than I am? just now are
in abeyance. In their absence is this
pleasant sense that there are many cities in the world
and this is one of them.
It rained earlier. I think I'll go see the monks
make a sand mandala on the Esplanade; and
who knows, later I might get a sandwich.

-Linda Bamber, from Metropolitan Tang.

[Charles River esplanade, Boston MA.]