From the passing car window a question-shout
“Does he have enough water to drink?”
My new friend affirms, “Yeah, there’s…”
From the car window bills are offered
“Oh, anything helps brother, anything…”
We watch, Samuel and I, from ten feet away
“He is fascinated by water meters” I hear
myself say, feebly, from someplace deep
in my belly between courage and shame
“That’s a skutgafdasniecsd meter,” he explains
I lose the word his expertise offered
Before the drive home to write
This poem. Flittered into and out of
My mind as I made a request that
Embarrassed delighted perplexed –
“May we take your photo, please?”
met silence
He spoke to the ground, “I’m no good
With pictures…” and as I said my,
“ok, that’s ok tumbled over his “pictures”
and Samuel brought our conditional
too small anyway addition to his coffer
He allowed us.
To take it.
His picture.
I didn’t predict
When I set out today
To have my head turned by
An intriguing water meter
Zap think “Photo Op!”
To have my gut turned.
By his picture.
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