after a loooong thursday working my job
i sit with a pint behind a big window
as i like to do at this small craft brewery
cuz of the music they play and the beer they make
and how their large store front windows
looking out onto the corner of south 10th ave and east lake street
allow me to watch minneapolis and the world go by and today
i see in front of me
through the double glazed glass panes
a young woman sitting alone outside at one of the brewery’s tables
chatting with someone
speaking out loud to them
through the speaker on her huge tv phone
listening to the replies of a person who isn’t there
on her white wireless headphones
then gesturing and laughing
meanwhile, directly in front of both her and me
beyond the brewery’s patio
through the glass panes of the metrotransit bus stop
across the rush hour traffic flowing west, then east, down lake street
at the bus stop on the opposite, eastbound side
i watch as a man wearing white and orange medical bracelets
and dirty jeans and a muscle shirt and red ball cap
dances and gestures and speaks and laughs to himself
grabbing pieces of trash from the ground and spinning around
as the others waiting for a bus watch him and smile
or snicker and frown and step out of his way
until the 21A stops then pulls away
and the man is gone
and i sit alone writing this down
and the young woman gestures and laughs and speaks out loud
to a person who isn’t there
heat flow 