Desiderata

They all crave, wish, desire and want
Badly--freedom in all its varied and
Wondrous glory:
The panhandlers, muggers, drug addicts
And drug pushers in a dead-end alley in
Downtown (where for some reason,
The grass is always green);
The old-black lady with all her earthly
Wares "thrown in" an old shopping cart,
Talking on a cell phone (she found it on
An MTA bus-stop bench near Rampart) to her
Movie-star daughter in Malibu, imploring,
"Allow me to live in your garage;"
The "thirty something" guy from Arizona,
Who talked me into giving up some loose change;
The old-white man in Westlake with a pocket
Comb and mirror "admiring himself" while
"Speaking in tongue," and--across the vast
Pacific Ocean, in a former colony, a former
Actor/leader, saying, "I am still...I am."