Urban Frame

      Urban Frame

When the old woman fell from the city bus

And onto the curb of Belmont Avenue

I was watching from the window

Of a corner coffee shop

I saw the two polished girls

Giggling with color

Who stood nearby

Pretending not to notice her

As the bus pulled away

I watched the hustling businessman

Who, tripping, kicked her cane

Swore, and hurried on his way

And another young man

Who stooped to help her

Until he remembered his previous engagement

He left her there

With her knees in the street

And her hands up on the curb

Quaking with the strain

Unable to lift her head

I sat in that coffee shop

Not twenty feet away from her

The glass in the window

Separated me

Protecting me from the scene outside

And then I focused on the glass

Not five inches from my face

And I saw my own image in the glass

A weak mirage of my reflection

Projected onto that scene.

And it did not reflect well on me that day.