Mark Stern Wakes Up -- Frederick Feirstein

(Poem #214)Mark Stern Wakes Up Shining cratefuls of plum, peach, apricot Are flung out of the fruit man's tiny store. Behind the supermarket glass next door: Landslides of grapefruit, orange, tangerine, Persimmon, boysenberry, nectarine. The florist tilts his giant crayon box Of yellow roses, daffodils, and phlox. A Disney sun breaks through, makes toys of trucks And waddling movers look like Donald Ducks And joke book captions out of storefront signs: Café du Soir, Austrian Village, Wines. Pedestrians in olive drabs and grays Are startled by the sun's kinetic rays, Then mottled into pointillistic patches. The light turns green, cars passing hurl out snatches Of rock-and-roll and Mozart and the weather. The light turns red. Why aren't we together? -- Frederick Feirstein