The Trick is to Wear Earphones

a poem

Photo by Henry Be on Unsplash

The trick is to wear earphones.

Drown out the money-hungry pleas
as you walk down
busy city streets.

No, that’s not enough.

Pair them with sunglasses.
Then they can’t see
you see them.

If you witness their sidewalk humanity,
then they’ve got you
and you’ve got that pang
in your heart;
you’ll carry it with you
all day.

The sad men on the street
ask for something,
or anything,
they ask to be seen
to be real, to matter.

They ask
to survive
in a world
they don’t fit in.

They’re lost,
and you’re maybe afraid
that lost could catch you
if you pause.

You can’t open your wallet,
you don’t carry one
in the digital age.