a line of poetry makes me cry
sitting along in a coffee shop
as an old man who ordered
a roast beef on rye
is slurping the last of
his onions up
and another's enraged
at the stockmarkets low
he just won't spare a dime
on these overpriced lunches
then the pace of the city
seems to suddenly slow
as a passerby's bite
from a granny-smith crunches
and a middle-aged couple
they sit on a bench
and they lick ice-cream cones
with the saddest of faces
and then the rain clouds roll in
and the city gets drenched
and the storm is indifferent
to the scenes it erases
but still an elderly man
gets on one knee to tie
the unloosened knot
of his wife's shoestring up
and a line of poetry makes me cry
sitting alone in a coffee shop