The Man

There was an elderly man in a brown suede jacket which covered his hips
and a big woolly hat from under which
showed the smallest, thinnest fringe of fine hair.

It was translucent almost
it was not grey
and it stopped above the fray
of his collar.

His face was patient
in the manner of one who has accepted his age.
It was a kind and gentle face
ruddy with the cold.

He carried a stick
and moved slowly, picking
up flowers in pots and examined them.
He poked at the soil
with his thumb and gazed at the foliage
and the blossoms.

He did not see the passers by
but one of them saw him
and she wondered what he knew.

- London, March 1994