Images, 1976

A broken man with broken
 dreams stumbling along the
  street, decked out in his
   Sunday-best of dark green
    work pants, a heavy faded
     brown jacket, and matching cap,
      with at least a two-day beard.

A group of men walking
 briskly down the street
  as if late for an
   appointment, and dressed
    in carefully coordinated colors,
     as if they were doing a
      lay-out for Esquire.

The broken man has the face
 of a town drunk and expresses
  that be putting his hand on
   a coin return lever at a public
    phone and pushes down in rapid
     succession with the hope
      that a dime would drop.

The young men pass the old
 man and look over their
  shoulders at him to see what
   he was doing, and the old man
    breaks his concentration to look
     up at the people from the
      other-side-of-the-tracks.

They laugh.  He shrugs without
 responding to them and turns
  to search for another phone.
   They continue to laugh and
     ridicule him amongst themselves,
      when one turns to the man and
       says, "Get a Job"!

The man walks away as if
 he didn't hear, while the
  young men continue laughing
   as they go back to work,
    but the old man did hear
     and wishes that he hadn't
      heard, but off he goes stumbling.