Richibi’s Weblog

“Hibiscus and Sparrow“

Katsushika Hokusai

_______

standing behind a Japanese man
at the check-out counter the other
day at Safeway’s, thinking their
express line was about as fast
as a slow lane in Manhattan, I
listened to the cashier explaining,
over other transactional
considerations, that their point
cards were no longer in use

with the deference that seems to
me their trademark as a culture,
who else wears white gloves
when they’re driving a taxi, who
else returns your lost trinket to
your hotel room on no less than
a silver platter the following week
when you return – I’d been a flight
attendant, I know, I lived it – o
leally, the Asian man replied

wherein I discovered completely
my patience, Manhattan, for the
moment at least, be damned, I
needed to stop to partake of this
serendipitous nugget, to carpe
this inadvertent and delightful
diem, midst the dross I’d’ve
otherwise, by default, probably
allowed

for that matter, what’s dross, I
wondered, isn’t dross itself in
the eye of the beholder

leally and tluly, I surmised, life
is in its details

Richard