Shouts Drowning Murmurs 

Two bums perch on the lobster 

red-rusted supports under 

the Williamsburg Bridge admiring, 

really romantically dreaming 

on the yellow and white lights 

of Manhattan upstream and 

read The New Yorker. 

One of them YELLS: 

I don’t understand why people don’t 

take the time to be kind to each other.

To praise each other - it’s so easy to do. 

We’re all gonna die!

 

The other bum's eyes pop big and he HOLLERS: 

You ain’t gonna find it in THAT magazine, 

throw it in the river!

The magazine drops, the pages fluttering free 

down to the water

back to where they started, 

back to life.