SUNGLASSES

Driving down the street on a Wednesday
I'm thinking of last night's State of the anti-Union address
Conflicted about free-lancing for the people who think for him
Worried about my perfect other free lance gig and its lack of stability
Glad I got a callback to a play that pays 1/4 of the first one but the work I love the most
Concerned that I've overcommitted myself
Again
Wondering if I'll ever have sex
Again
My friend Don at work was having pain and numbness in his left arm.
Is he okay?
I promised both kids I'd put money in their college cash card accounts.
But I forgot.
Suddenly I'm at the Preston/Forest intersection, staring at the Whole Foods and Jack in the Box signs.
What am I doing here?
Where is the epiphany?
So I do what everybody else is does: studiously avoid eye contact with the homeless woman on the corner.
You know?
You try to evade her by looking down, or look busy with something in the other seat,
But then maybe she thinks you're getting money out of your purse and she comes closer
so you either stare somewhere else or just look straight ahead and pretend her out of existence,
Or maybe,
Hardest of all, you just look straight at her and shake your head no.

It's easier, isn't it, when you're wearing sunglasses?

And some of us feel guilty and some of us think "get a real job"
And some of us hand her a dollar not knowing whether she'll use it to buy baby food or beer .......
And all of us have done, and all of us have thought, ALL of those things.

Thank God I'm wearing sunglasses.
Otherwise, what if people could see me thinking these things?
What if all our thoughts were random thought bubbles flying in and out of cars?

Substance for another post.