Midday Crowd

Midday Crowd
  
 On a dark street, cars
 weave around people whose eyes
 are shopping bags stuffed
 with ads. A blonde pivots
 on red high heels and the bus
 blows by, a blade stuck 
 in the wind's back.  Papers
 blow down alleys, posters peel
 from walls, a siren slices
 through mid‑afternoon
 and for a second, everyone
 stopped/mouths open,
 just like the end of the world.