(Palermo) (Sicilia 4)

gelato, crema penna.
groups of men walking down the street,
only to stop and check out clothes in shop windows
businessmen in suits eating gelato.
not spilling on their ties.
thousands of youth – maybe hundreds of thousands -
eagerly anticipating some random concert I have yet to hear.
thousands of youth enjoying the evening
splitting perhaps a 24 between them all.
incorrectly purchasing tomato and red pepper.
how north american of me to assume
other than they’ll weigh them for me.
a protest, or something, table set up
to protest something I didn’t figure out.
a clock that shows the night is young,
yet a shoulder and feet that do not feel it
a clean enough shirt, although wrinkled,
that buys me the freedom to feel
slightly less anglicized in a world of
solidly Mediterranean people.