"Lower East Side Baby" - 2/17/20

what was it about me that hooked you in, little one?
being but an infant, you might be labeled helpless yet
the strength of your bairn stare stripped my veneer
suddenly there was no rush to get anywhere

If anything, I was conscious that your mother (a stranger)
might deem it inappropriate for me to linger
mesmerizing as you were, and calling out
for me by my spontaneous nick-name: "colorful"

So I met your protector, slender and youthful
short-bobbed hair and no-makeup on her
luminescent skin (suddenly I imagine your face
how you would react would you have kept walking

or like me, ambled backwards at the sound
of innocence aloud what would she have had to
Coo to enabled you to pause, delightfully derailed
From Monday's fast-paced purpose, deposed)