IS
written in black permanent marker enclosed
by a near perfect circle
he was very taken by the
freehand circle
IS denotes being
IS encapsulated by a circle the circle like skin concrete skin the only way to remove concrete is to
destroy itcut it up into manageable pieces or crush it under sledgehammer blows
this IS wasnt likely to put up with either the sawblade or hammer take them in hand is tantamount to threatening IS
he thought IS would be terrifying in that confrontation
IS
was written on a risers face on the upper right hand side
he looked around for hints to
who IS was it was on a secluded staircase leading up or going
down from the library parking lot
it was typically a haven for the homeless for disaffected teens whose antisocial
tendencies he had firsthand knowledge of
he offended them by telling them Shutup he didnt want to hear the filth coming
out of their mouths
the four bigmouths somehow forged a band of teens that converged on him but aside from their vile words they were
smart enoughat least not to touch him
their words didnt touch him
he strolled oblivious at their
head at his leisure
someone fearing for his safety called
the police
the staircase was littered with
detritus partially eaten food containers
empty liquor bottles drug paraphernalia clothing sweaters tattered blankets
feces
once a week someone with the
librarys maintenance staff threw the things away scrubbed the waste
hosed down the long concrete staircase
IS
remained slightly faded
he didnt think maintenance played
with sulfuric acid
sulfuric acid has a way with permanence
IS inclined him to use
those steps whenever he was passing to the libraryheading over to the grocerystore
the homeless moved aside made a
gap so he could step through them
the teens usually got up off
their asses stood let him pass
apparently they had heard of him
he always said Thank you as he
went
IS
Being
we are all beings
circumstances beyond our control
can have deleterious affects
youd think someone would want to
understand a person rather than cast the wide net of stereotyping
as a youth he read
Yevgeny Yevtushenko a Russian poet: No
people are uninteresting . . . if someone lives in obscurity, / befriending
that obscurity, / he is interesting to people / by his very obscurity.
that was written in 1961
he carried a clipboard in the
cloth bag that hung from his shoulder as he walked
in among the wastepaper one side
used the other side free held by the board he kept Yevushenkos poem inside a
plastic slip he copied the poem on a typewriter whaszat?
he figured the weighted bagwhat
might be inside it concealed probably provided him unmolested passage
between the homeless and teens
no one dared ask Whats in the
bag, man?
IS
reminded him every time he passed it
No people are uninteresting . .
What do we know of brothers, of friends? / What do we know of our one and only?
/ And about our own fathers, / knowing everything, we know nothing.
0926, Monday,
12 3. 18
1300, Saturday,
24 3. 18
Marc Cohn
29 Ways https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-ztBUaexC4
