Continued

You Can Walk Tall

You Can Walk Tall I sawtwo old women talking in the middle of the sidewalk . And I kept going. I saw a bald man holding a small package wrapped in white paper and tied with plain string! I looked back at him! I saw a gas station with a row of vehicles —cars and trucks, and a man in gray overalls with a huge funnel in his hand, and the wind carried the smell of gas all the way to me on the other side — I went right past it! Yet another man, with a week's stubble, somewhere near forty, shouted "Antonio!" like an Italian, from across the street, but the guy he was calling was Polish too, like me and the "half percent of others," just ten years more worn out. I kept going, the street smiled at me with open windows , sobbed to me, sang me a city song and I sang the refrain: sure, sure, we will rebuild. 78 ...