long walk

If you had been outside this morning
you would have seen me walking the little dog
and I would have smiled at you,
but I know you weren’t there.
The porches and sidewalks all empty on this sunny day
in my Midwesternville neighborhood.

Which is why we took the rest of our walk in Harlem.
Women sitting together on the stoops say “Good morning.”
Old men in suits nod a greeting as they pass you,
even in the rain.

If you had stepped outside an hour ago,
you would have seen me and the little dog,
moving lonely past tomato plants and wild roses and summer lawns,
toward the subway station at 125th St. and Lenox
and the noise of car radios and delivery trucks
and mothers with babies and young women with fancy fingernails
and people everywhere, alive, together.