Not all people are vain and stupid
Even though most of the time
It seems that way to me
Occasionally someone will surprise me
With their decency and grace
Standing in line at a McDonald’s
A guy starts to walk towards me
And heavy sweat is falling from his brow
He smiles, and tells me about the
Yard work he is doing this afternoon on
An unusually muggy spring day
And normally I would be incurably bored
Listening to someone talk about mowing their lawn
But the guy has a charming way of speaking,
Much like a preacher, so I can’t help but to listen
To him
And he goes on and on about his lawn,
And about what kind of weed killer to use,
What time one should cut their grass, and how often
One should cut it
But I am not bored, as I think about what H.L. Mencken said,
“There are no boring subjects, just boring writers.”
And once again Mencken rings true for me
He’s friendly and waves to everyone coming into
The store; his eyes are guileless, which
Is rare in children and adults
I listen to him, rarely saying anything, just nodding
My head; talking would ruin
Listening to the man speak
And I wouldn’t want to do that÷
He would make a good drinking partner at a bar,
Even though he is about twenty years my senior
But I like the guy, meeting him briefly
In this quick moving place
