South Side Soothsayers
" I'm a bum," he said
on a hazy evening.
Standing on the corner
of East Carson Street,
South Side of Pittsburgh.
" Everyone has the potential
for genius!"
His words echo of the cracked
conglomerate of sidewalks
bearing the daily burden of
many passing,
shopper's unaware steps.
" We are all born with
the same number of brain
cells, little lady."
Was he telling me that
genius is bred within each
and not created?
"Intelligence and brilliance
burdens the streets!"
Decaying brown leather
shoes step on the ashes
dust from the menthol light
he had bummed from me.
" Addiction, my dear,
is all in the mind. I paid
five dollars for a cigarette
once,"
He laughs while cradling
the nicotine filled column
between his heavy aged
fingers.
" I don't need this anymore
than you do, anymore than
anyone needs anything."
Tossing the butt into
the ominous slits of
the pitched sewer
grate and then solemnly
strolled away stating,
" Don't you know it's all
in the mind, my dear,
all in the mind."
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