out of step *

being here
disconcerts.

here I am--
an unreal entity in an unreal city.

sometimes i am as eloquent
as a tomb in a merry park.
revellers fall silent in my presence.
and when they walk away,
their footsteps on the gravel path,
dumb with forebodings.

at other times i am a wild lily
that had escaped the gardener’s notice;
and i waltz with the roses and dahlias
to the pitch and fall of the breeze.

it disconcerts...
to be thus
conspicuous.

***