I sat on the bench in the park.
The china man watched me
as I watched him.
I knew he was a china man
because he had a newspaper rapped up like a torch.
And the paper had all the numbers on it.
I looked down
and the pigeons heads
moved quickly back and forth
as they walked along the path.
The trees
looked down on us all.
A woman who sat close to me
left
and then ten minutes later
she came back
and left by another way.
I watched her leave this time
as I had watched her leave before.
I thought about following her for a while.
More women came and went
even I went and came back.
But I still think of the girl
who left by one way
and then another.
Marc Carver has published four books of poetry. He is an international artist in America and have appeared at festivals in England. I have been the chief editor of a poetry magazine and also worked on another magazine in New York. I have also been published in a critical essay of a Japenese haiku artist.