I asked my friend,

Who do you love?

And she looked about the street we were in

at the large houses in the neighborhood

She told me she loved the wealth that could buy a residence like these.

 

I enquired of an older man, a professor of English

Who did he love?

He loved the young women who studied so hard

texts written years ago

And he dreamed of their silk bodies and eager minds.

 

I asked a man who was standing at the taxi rank

And he threw his bottle aside and demanded

Money for another drink,

It is so good to hold a new bottle in your hands

And feel the cool promise of another dizzy night.

 

A girl in the street dropped her doll.

A woman dressed in a pale green dress bent down and picked the doll up.

The girl told the woman that she loved her.

The woman smiled and held the girl tight.

A light rain fell, shaking the green leaves of a plane tree that grew nearby.