I saw a man in a wheelchair

pause on an asphalt path

overseeing the roll of the park

in the dimming light of early evening

listening to the sounds and rustle of geese,

squirrels and chipmunks, the crunch

of walkers through acorns and leaves;

a man and woman arguing deep in the pines,

their lies, her sobs, his shouts,

audible in echoes

 

Across the green there was

a father and daughter kicking

a soccer ball over grass,

young mothers jogging behind strollers,

a young poet chalking the last few lines

of a sidewalk poem,

lovers kissing on the bridge

over a pond downhill

under the branch of a plum tree

 

When the earth shifted slightly

and the sky began to dissolve,

the man in the wheelchair

witnessing the world in motion

for the past half hour

executed a u-turn and spun

into the shadows of dusk

 

I wanted to chase after him

but I don’t know what for

or what I could possibly say