BROKEN SONNET OF FIVE HOMELESS
This woman who eats
From a garbage can
At times hasn't sense
To even do that.
The passers-by
Avert their eyes...
This man
Becomes an incredulous
Stalking cat
When he spies a smoking wet cigarette
That is precariously set beside
A gutter. "It waits," he mutters "to get
Put out before my fingers pounce, and hide
Its warmth from my throat!"
Her eyes:
Wide, dull, gray
She can stare for days and days
Still as stone
Unlove's hate burns
Her withered soul away.
He screams
He is so utterly alone
He hugs himself and screams obsenities
At papers that follow him in the breeze.
J W Cooper
January 1987
Copyright
©
John W. Cooper