#1

He crosses the street to the vicarage,

having spent his hours crossing swords

with the demons harrying his flock.

A cold roast, a glass of wine, then bed.

He will pray to his shepherd for refuge

during the dark hours of his dreams.

 

#2

He steps slowly off the sidewalk,

a stranger far from recognition,

trying to decide if the woman

standing beneath a street lamp

should be asked into the shadows.

 

#3

He staggers from sidewalk to gutter

to street and back again, again,

oblivious to the chance of a bus,

a speeding car or fatal trip,

having eased the pain of good-bye.

 

#4

He walks a different way home,

noting dark shops, high steeples,

low lights behind apartment shades.

These places call to him, will him

to return at different times of day,

camera in hand to immortalize them.

 

(after the 1949 photograph, “London #1204,” by René Groebli)