man standing on his head in Union Station
thinks he sees frontier outlaws,
cattle rustlers
confidence men, ladies of the
evening, Cicero gangsters
aldermen, church officers, bank
presidents, union bosses
school children, mothers, fathers, grandparents,
space
aliens thinks he sees Chicago Bears
beating Minnesota 13-0
air molecules seeming to move
toward him
stand still in migrating slants
of sunlight
as passengers pass by pass between
wander and weave wave and warn
themselves
numbed by daily routines passersby
seem to suspend in hivelike
activity
missionary while stationary in
motion
both here and not now and not
looking in and out to other times
other places on the line and off
as the words inside him whisper
the Burlington Northern welcomes
you to Chicago’s Union Station
announcements ring out now
arriving, now departing
feet, trolleys, trains, and taxis
on floors, streets, and tracks come
and go
coming and going doors whoosh open
and shut
his memory seems to fade away his
competence is irrelevant all around
him
dates, years, hours unglue from the
Now
it’s a rather large small he is
beginning to see and un-see
a future before him and a past
behind the here and now
always somehow trying not to try
there where the marble stairs
outline the wooden benches beyond
splitting infinities in the vast
mind of the observer being observed
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