No Coat Wearing B***h

Today a man on the street called me “beautiful.”

Yesterday a man on the street called me a “No Coat Wearing B***h.”

I cannot say which pleased me more.

Last week in the Port Authority Bus Terminal

 A strange woman entrusted me with her six-year old son.

He sat next to me on the northbound bus and we painted pictures with my lipstick

On the lined pages of my notebook.

Last month a boy called out “How you doin’”

From the other side of the sidewalk and I would have responded

 “I’m well, and you?” But his friend wore a pair of

Blue boxing gloves.

The minutes pass gently now like a breeze over a shoulder like an eye

Over a florid phrase in a favorite book.

But even the women who look nothing like Susannah look exactly like

Susannah.

Am I everybody’s stranger?

 

Reviews

[bob, small b. aka invs]

after reading a bunch of flora and fauna poetry by other writers, it's nice to stumble onto a decidedly urban poem. i'm enjoying reading your stuff. thanks for the unique voice.