Half a City Street

By Christopher J Zurcher

Chapel and Church and
College and Orange and
Court and George and
York and Howe and
Elm and Grove
There’s a misery on the street,
a happiness, a melancholia, a wondering,
a freezing in the winter,
and a melting in the summer.
A little bit on one street
a lot of another world … a whole nother universe on another.
Where some screams are like a baby
or a woman … or a man
or a car, or an ambulance, or a bus, or a train
or just a bad commercial air conditioning unit
next to a parade with bagpipes and sirens.
Music and life.
Glee, and sadness.
A couple holds hands,
She whispers something to him.
His voice is not a whisper, though, nor does he scream it out loud.
A crowd celebrates on the Green
Another protests at City Hall
A child, waiting at the bus stop with his mother
watches and wonders
whether what those crowds are doing,
what those two groups of people are doing,
are one and the same and
just separated by half a city street.