Work Text:
The Park Bench
In the years past,
I have walked through this park,
and by this park bench many times,
and when ever I did walk by it,
and it was empty,
I would always stop,
and sit on it for awhile,
listen to the birds singing,
and toss round in my mind,
the things that were starting to eat at me,
like the way it once used to be,
not so long ago.
Sometime when I walked through the park
on this, the main park trail
this park bench would not be empty
one day there was an old man sleeping,
under newspapers, on it...
another time, a junkie had been nodding
you could see his spent needle
laying on the ground near the bench
and a trickle of fresh blood on his arm
and once, I will never forget
there was a drunk bag man,
with his drunk bag person girl friend
trying to have sex on the bench,
while he held the bottle of wine in his hand
she held him in hers...
this park bench was rich in history
I walked through the park,
and passed by the same old park bench today,
for the first time in a long time,
I was glad to find it empty,
and when I stopped and sat down
just for awhile,
to listen to the birds sing
and toss things round in my mind,
things that are eating at me lately,
it just wasn't the same for me,
I couldn't sit there and play the old mind game,
not today... it didn't feel right,
so now that even this has changed for me,
what do I do,
where do I go,
is it time for something new...
I think so.
and so I walked...
Just round the bend in the park's main trail,
near the big pine tree,
with all the flowers round it,
over by the cannon's,
there is another park bench...
and it is painted the same color
as the park bench I always sit on,
and today there is someone, a woman,
sitting on the other bench round the bend,
she is most likely another confused soul,
sitting there just tossing round in her head
the things that are starting to eat at her,
like I used to do,
on my park bench,
round the bend behind me,
painted the same color as the one she sits on.
I wonder does she listen to the birds sing,
while she sits there, alone...
like I used to
and does she know that I used to sit on a bench
and toss round things in my mind
like she is doing now,
and that today I just couldn't do it,
that it was no longer the same for me,
and that now even that has changed for me,
and that this will all change for her too one day?
In the years past,
I have walked through this park,
and by this park bench many times,
and when ever I did walk by it,
I would always stop,
and sit on it for awhile,
if it was empty,
listen to the birds singing,
and toss round in my mind,
the things that were starting to eat at me,
like the way it once used to be,
not so long ago
but not today...
today all that changed.
©1999 Jim Nasium
La Galeria de GymArt
http://www.voicenet.com/~gymart