Halloween. Noon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maple and oak leaves fell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They made art together at the curbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An inflatable ghost sagged on duty<\/p>\n\n\n\n
behind a white picket fence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jack O Lanterns stood ready<\/p>\n\n\n\n
to flicker and get creamed by<\/p>\n\n\n\n
juvenile delinquents,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
only they don’t do that anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Social progress?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I walked on a sidewalk<\/p>\n\n\n\n
poured in 1912.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A man carrying a bag of cans<\/p>\n\n\n\n
with his left hand<\/p>\n\n\n\n
rode a bicycle toward me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He held a clear plastic bag<\/p>\n\n\n\n
full of something<\/p>\n\n\n\n
in the other hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, he rode a bicycle<\/p>\n\n\n\n
while carrying two bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I see it all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’ve seen a man carrying four bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His bicycle looked weird:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
high seat like a unicycle,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
chopper handlebars,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
primary colors,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
duct tape and wires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A homeless man’s bike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They should give out<\/p>\n\n\n\n
an annual award for<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the weirdest homeless bikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No, make that the cleverest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I stepped off the sidewalk<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and into the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man stopped riding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He set the bag of cans down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was anywhere<\/p>\n\n\n\n
from 30-70 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His hair was long,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
his face was pulverized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He dug into the other bag<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and came up with…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Candy corn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Candy corn!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n He ate it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He smiled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Halloween. Noon. Maple and oak leaves fell. They made art together at the curbs. An inflatable ghost sagged on duty behind a white picket fence. Jack O Lanterns stood ready to flicker and get creamed by juvenile delinquents, only they don’t do that anymore. Social progress? I walked on a sidewalk poured in 1912. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8627,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","category-poetry","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8628,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8626\/revisions\/8628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}