Sunday, February 26
"if you please, pretty pretty please,
could just tell me where heaven is?"
the artist smiled, pointed to his paints
- empty canvases, hairless brushes -
the beggar grinned a mouthful of yellow,
remains of rock-hard bread.
the banker leans forward, and with a
snap of his fingers
a stack of $50 notes in his outstretched hand.
"if you please, pretty pretty please,
could just tell me where heaven is?"
the man outside the brothel, lumbering in,
the man outside the bar, shuffling along
the man outside the casino, counting his coins,
deciding what to mortgage next.
and in the portable toilets outside
needles - heroin - cocaine - ecstasy, snuffed
quickly as the sirens ring.
"if you please, pretty pretty please,
could just tell me where heaven is?"
mountaintops, valleys. and-oh-maybe!
they're hidden behind the grasses.
elves, gnomes, fairies? perhaps
below rivers, ends of rainbows
wide-eyed wonder, only 10,
the bed on a rainy day, or -
skiving off sunday school to play with boys.
heaven is everywhere,
concluded the child.
i was green-ed at 11:24 pm
