AN AWARENESS OF BEING.

Almost like St Paul being struck down
On the road to Damascus, but this
Was Mermaid Parade, Coney Island,
Brooklyn and the girl seemed
Suddenly to have heard something,
(You saw her face on the way to
The john, camera in hand, the lens
Hungry for something to snap)
Maybe voices of the dead or her

Own secret ghosts or angels singing
(You’ll never know, you never asked
And she never told) or maybe a thought
Of what to do if that creep touches
Her again like her cousin did back
In Montana a few years ago
(You capture her, your silent shutter,
The camera put aside, the need
For the john urgent now) but she

Walks on, her face gazing upwards,
Eyes looking at something in the sky,
Maybe the cloud formation or birds
Or something not seen by others
(You’ve moved on now, on out
Of sight) maybe the light of day
Suddenly struck the awareness
In her that she is alive, actually
Alive, and that tomorrow or the day

After or next week or years to come
She will be dead and gone, but this
Day, this moment will be branded
In her memory, this utterly alive
Feeling, this here and now sensation,
Then, it’s all gone, that feeling, that
Insight and she walks on away
From that awareness of living
Into the numbness of being that
Catches us and smothers us at night.