Page 8 - Contrast1966

The people were stilI. there. Different people. Dressed in. red
and blue and all colors. Negroes and whites and maybe even IndIans.
I don't know. So I forgot the old lady.

I passed by the newsstand. It was still open. I watched as people
bought things and paid the blind man. I watched him reach con-
fidently for what they asked for. I watched a kid swipe a Playboy:
Then I went over to him and asked for a magazine. He reached fO~
the magazine and then handed it to me. It cost fifty cents. All I ha
was that five dollar bilI. Is this a one? he said. Yes.

He gave me fifty cents change and I walked back to my car.

FULL CYCLE
It's all quite dark;
I see through a haze
The velvet black pastures
Where flocks of stars graze.
Vague foreign shapes appear
I never saw before:
The wonders of nature
Greenness, birds, miracles galore.
They grow clear and sharp,
Colors, outlines well defined.
Now in full sparkling day
Truths and certainties I find.
But come again the doubts,
Mystery, darkness of night
When all the day's absolutes,
With descending black, take flight.

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