I was about to be mugged by a man <br />with a chain so angry he growled <br />at the Lincoln Center subway station <br />when out of nowhere appeared a tall <br />chubby-faced Hasidic Jew with peyot <br />and a black hat a black coat white shirt <br />with prayer-shawl fringes showing <br />we walked together out of the station <br />and when we got outside and shook hands <br />I noticed he was blind. Goodbye, <br />I said, as giddy as a man waking <br />from an anesthetic in the recovery room, <br />happy, with a hard-on. The cabs were <br />on strike on Broadway so beautiful <br />a necklace of yellow beads <br />I breathed in the fumes impossibly happy<br /><br />David Lehman<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/january-24/
