SOMETIMES THEY ARE FOUND JUST WALKING BY

SOMETIMES THEY ARE FOUND JUST WALKING BY
they were walking side by side
and the woman
maybe in her mid twenties
was saying to the man
about the same age,
“remember? Remember
when you didn’t piss me off? Do you
remember that?”
the guy trudged along
looking like a whooped dog
a beaten down skeleton of a man
he didn’t speak or nod or shake his head
he just made his way
one foot in front of the other
staring at the cement
still warm from a long day’s sun
“that was yesterday,” the woman continued
“that was yesterday that you didn’t
piss me off. But today? Today
is a different story. Today you piss off.”
I walked over to the edge of the sidewalk
spat in the gutter and walked back to my doorway
a writer friend of mine was sitting on a step
smoking a cigarette and smiling
because she’d heard it too
“did you hear that?” I said to her
she didn’t look up but she smiled and I said,
“there’s a poem in there.”