An Encounter—Murfin Verse

A street encounter between acquaintances.  What will they discover?

Yesterday Facebook's memory dredge hauled up a status report from way back in 2010.  I had completely forgotten about it but after years of ever increasing American polarization and its attendant personal trauma I found it more relevant than ever.  It was also found verse making a poem simply by breaking up the lines exactly as originally written.  I have discovered of few of the over they years.  At least they are short and sweet and don’t drone on forever.

William Carey's sketch of the Old Poet reading.

An Encounter

Discovered in a Facebook status from

October 21, 2010

 

Pleasantries with a wave and nod acquaintance of some years. 

Don’t know each other’s last names.

You know—weather, sports, a bit of family trivia.

A passing word betrays an affiliation. 

The eyes narrow, the jaw sets just so. 

In an instant the other, the enemy, the sub-human. 

Whose eyes, whose jaw?

 

—Patrick Murfin