By JOHN FREEMAN
Backlit by the glow
from a small passageway,
he kneels into the fog
of yellow light,
head kissing the carpet.
I step around him,
respecting his privacy, when
the mat becomes not prayer
rug but builder’s tool,
a black piece of tarmac, laid down
before the bank so he could
peer close, fix the dead
motion sensor so that people
with money could
be seen, all doors opening
for them.
John Freeman is editor of the literary annual Freeman’s. His latest books are Dictionary of the Undoing; Tales of Two Planets, an anthology of writing on inequality and the climate crisis; and The Park, a collection of poems. The executive editor of Literary Hub, he lives in New York. His works has been translated into twenty-four languages.
