Street Entertainers

p*ss it they who are doing it?
Is that man, that glittery man
splattered in paint--is it him who smiles?
And is that man, that man,
is he actually singing
in the faceless mess of crowds?
And that cliché guy, pressing himself
into the ground, and
crayoning…
Is he really lost in his art, (too ‘in the zone'
to notice his admirers).

And the buskers and poets, squabbling
for position, desperate to be heard…

But who is really heard?

There is much applause for the high-fiving bear
and the monkey with the cigarette,

and the deluded desperate mammals,
who believe they are nothing as themselves,
believe they are loved for nothing.