Possessed by Sherlock [Today's News Poem, January 3, 2011]

Possessed by Sherlock [Today's News Poem, January 3, 2011]

In a deerstalker cap, with a pipe, he is Sherlock
Of the bench by the bus-stop. I have seen him before
As he sleuths on the corner, observing the junkies
Who have shame as he watches, but jimmy the keyholes
Regardless.

He's Chinese or German; he's gray like an ashtray
And watches the buses—forgetting, recalling—
In search of a schedule; of doing—undoing.
He stakes out his claim as detective of sidewalk
And paces.

He ages, reverses in thought, then returns with the buses;
Inhabits the bachelors, elderly, lonely; disguising
Himself with possession—he haunts them with archetype bookmarks.
Omnipotent Holmes, California is worthy to rent you
Our castoffs.

The land of the future is past and the present, collapsing
Itself. It's the complement suiting a man of his era
Of logic, deduction—a will to control all the factors
Surrounding a person—of industry, steam-powered heartbeats,
Impending doom.

"House Republicans plan to start the New Year with a splash: they say that they’ll vote to repeal President Obama’s signature health-care overhaul before his upcoming State of the Union address."
—Peter Grier, The Christian Science Monitor, January 3, 2011
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2011/0103/GOP-push-for-repeal-of-health-reform-Is-it-politically-wise

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