Jehovah’s Witnesses stand on street corners preaching their word of god….only so few allowed through the pearly gates…the rest of us….well…

Bobby’s at the barber shop cutting fades and Caesar’s….cheapest prices in town…leave happy or your money back…

lovers sit in Washington Square Park as tourists take selfies and art students disrobe…various poses struck…Midwesterners look-on….pointing….whispers….we’re not in Kansas anymore…

I sit in an old man’s bar….drinking bitters….while grown-ups proclaim and procrastinate…the day has barely begun…another Scotch and soda…

the Manhattan church bells ring..
St. Patrick’s opens their doors….a hundred Mexicans come into pray….twenty Hindus look at art adorned walls…and Fundamentalists judge as only Fundamentalists can do, I don’t see what all the fuss is about, is overheard as they stroll down aisles…

and the acts of commerce begin again…the pushing…the shoving…the phone calls to sell…sell…sell…buy…buy….buy…boys with cellphones dialing for dollars….and cleavage is shown in shrink’s offices by pharmaceutical reps sealing deals….

I sit drinking bitters…listening….watching all from a corner seat…a swivel to the left and a turn to the right…as public bathrooms are cleansed and junkies nod out behind buildings….dumpsters…peep-show booths while Bollywood music plays and plays and plays…

the juke box booms Lush Life…followed by My Favorite Things…and glasses clink…the brushes wash…and all is forgiven…

I’ll have another…