Washington
Find a puzzle piece
Put back
Into the wrong box.
There’s no making it fit.
10,000 faces,
Again alone,
Watching the crowds
Congregate.
Some are surprised
To get so close to it.
Others are celebrating,
Colorful in their festival clothes.
I’m indulging the
Vagabond,
Heat of midday –
Just keep moving into it.
Then bottle in hand,
Small talk
And small talk
And small talk, incessant.
Concrete and rats,
A gathering grime
Penetrates
Thin veneer.
I want water,
He brings me wine,
And I watch the drunks
Grow drunker.
Then help them home,
Mothering stranger,
Remembering why
I don’t.
And it’s lonely –
To be puzzling,
And impossible
To fit.
