NY/10:45.

Passing by a knot of businessmen,
Their suits betraying lack of exercise;
They hurry on with panic in their eyes,
I almost feel like one of them again.

Beyond them, fathers playing basketball,
And sons press on in classic rivalry,
Their struggle at the game might clearly be
A fleeting recognition: that is all.

A cast of pie-eyed indigents halt by,
And smile from miles beyond the present curb
With graveyard voice and fuck as every verb,
They look as human and as dignified as I.