Yesterday’s news
Surprised me today
As I sat on a low wall
By several elementary schools.
Tossing unlit cigarettes
Into a potted plant
As the school children
Held up an image of lungs
And jeered me to pieces.
I pulled on a jacket
In Celsius weather
But the sleeves had been caught
Between some leathered
Old man and his teeth
All holey and strange.
The children got Frightened, and
The teacher taught of bombs
Unexploded on the eastern shore.
And readings adored
By people who sold
Books door to door.