The Curb Alongside by Zöe Sîobhan Howarth-Lowe

A woman, stationed precisely

between statues of George Washington;

faces destroyed by weather;

the crush and heave;

endless; dug beneath

the sturdy squalor;

the visible lunatics;

stunned; baffled; fleshless;

blazing with lesions;

the pungent, meaty-smoke;

the bleat and the strum,

of three boys,

and a girl

chasing pigeons.

A quick spatter of an awkward moment,

she turns her mouth away;

offering her cheek;

a corner of reluctant reflex.