A memo to tomorrow’s pride

You haven’t known humility
until you’ve had your foot run over
by a woman in a wheelchair 
smoking an off-brand cigarette (She rolled off it
as I stood in the middle of the crosswalk
and she flicked her butt to the pavement
without a single glance at me) For true humility
to stumble over grace 
you gotta sit in a vegetarian restaurant 
on Guadalupe in the off-peak shadows
for an hour and watch the window
pane passed over
by hand-holding lovers Yesterday’s woman 
                                         Someone’s mother
(tongue soothing the memory
of her brittle lips)
ambles with arthritis
with a lone tray of leftovers
tosses rice to pigeons (in 
                           Tok Pisin
muttering something about the starving people
on the many islands of Melanesia
you’ll never know)
which tumbles on the peaceful pavement
in the shape of Indonesia
and at the far table beyond the edge of your world
the Spanish-speaking busgirls
repose from the lunch shift
enjoying an energetic picnic
in the empty restaurant
where three voiceless whispers 
echo with the cadences 
of confidentiality Multiple men in retirement
from what you wonder
with tired rage wrapped around their faces
creep in cardigans shielding their wings
talk to the pigeons as they pick up styrofoam meals
(which didn’t exist in their youth) 
and buzz away To become humble
you must stare as a silver man in a lavender uniform 
charges across the street
between the buses and the bicycles
wielding a black plastic bag 
filled with you wonder what
and you wonder where he is taking it
(to dispose of in private you suppose)
though you can’t help speculating about his childhood dreams
and what his last job might have been Fear 
how you will one day become netted
                                   as a metaphor
by some image-hungry poet Return
in silence to the uneaten curry bun
on the table
studying the significance
of employment, voice, food, and locomotion
in this haven of workers in and out of motion
you have prayed the humble prayer
                                  of words