middle-aged man

middle-aged man
carrying a backpack
can't be up to any good

why isn't he
wearing a suit
riding first class amtrak

winning the bread
setting the example
doing what a man has to do

he don't have the answers

middle-aged man
carrying the worn-out backpack
can't be looked up to

wanders in random circles
shabby but not unkempt
for he stands up in battered dignity

carrying around his own life
which aside from that old backpack
is all he got now


glenn peters (Omaha, NE, 1971)