EVENING FOG'S YCUMEN IN

I overheard
the middle-aged gentleman
say to himself, as he seemed delighted to retrieve
an almost unsmoked cigarette
from the pebble-textured trash receptacle on Fourth & Market
“. . . relinquish the chastity pose . . .”

he dropped this pearl, no doubt dearly earned,
in my ear for free
as I was vacuumed along with the crowd
down the BART stairs into the tube,
wishing I’d had the presence of mind
to slip him a twenty,

the moment already gone.

SF July, 08