Dripping

Fragile forest of dripping broken time
Letting life fall away in each jeweled drop lit
Spurting out with hosepipe reluctance
As children dance in this warm day
With no aircon relief winking at their young
Limbs, dancing around the folded up body of the bergie
Who the Netcare ambulance guys are trying to bring
Back to life by the corner café as I buy a samoosa
Drip-drip-dripping in and out of being
As I let my silver coins fall into the Indian girls palm
Each drop born with its pure metal sound
Immediately twirl their DNA around dying
The card shark deels his cards as
The cars eating gasoline juice mill up and down Rodebloem road
The kids giggle and laugh and chase each other on the dirty sidewalk
And an old Scottish man calls me to the open window
Of his shiny red car, looking for a hotel that stood in this
Area 30 years ago, his voice dripping away the
Under current of his nearing head on collision with his end
Death the souls C1 vertebra shattered
“Sorry, I don’t know” I say and I walk to my room
As the day breaths in another breath
Sweat clinging to me around my Bruce Lee vest
Walking away from the kids, the ambulance, the unconscious bergie and
The lost Scotsmen…
Never knowing how any of these
Stories play them self out
Never truly knowing any beginning or end
Passing through
As the blue sky drip-drips away
To night