SITTING HERE
(tompkins square park, 1968)
The old lady said 'Once I sit down I can never
get up.' What she meant was her legs were bad.
Creaky at the knees, swollen and bloated too.
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There were groups of elders all along these benches.
They'd just sit there staring out, maybe perplexed,
perhaps just calm and happy. I don't know.
-
Some held The Daily News. Others hugged their
canes and walkers. East-European Jews, survivors
of some wartime deal, fixated now on nothing at all.
-
A willful dedication to a life once sound : then the
crackle of guns and fire, the houses burning down.
'I came to America. With nothing at all. Now I sit.'
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