People Walk Around

People walk around
With people in their head.
What some lovely person did.
What some lovely person said.
Heartthrob in the head.

I float to 86th Street with you in my heart.
I’m a pigeon cooing to a crumb of bread,
Except I’m kind of floating instead—
And it’s not a crumb but a whole loaf of bread.
I feel I’m in an ambulance and you’re about to save me

With a Kit Kat
And a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.
I’m in an ambulance
With my teeth comically chattering.
And when I get inside your shop

I have to stand in line and you’re behind a counter
That sells the new and does repairs.
And everybody stares.
I stand there for years.
I can remember when I first walked in the store,

When aeons ago I first opened the door
To feathered dinosaurs turning into birdsong,
And you began to sing along,
The first step to being human,
But the planet continued to go wrong.