WOMAN WALKING IN

NEW YORK

She crosses Main Street
wearing a black knit suit
with black and gold zigzagged top,
complementing her
Hershey bar skin.

Her smartly coiffed ebony hair
frames her tense face. Her eyes
glisten with intelligence.

She limps slightly,
using a portable folding chair
to steady her gait.
There is dignity in her bearing.

Perhaps she is someone's mother,
grandmother, sister or aunt.
Maybe she's a retired teacher
who taught in Watts, Jamaica,
or the silk stocking district.

Perhaps she's a retired nurse
or social worker dedicated to
helping the indigent.
Or she could've been a biochemist
on the verge of a scientific breakthrough
when forced to retire.

Maybe she walked with Dr. Martin Luther King
or sat on the bus after Rosa Parks.
Maybe she helped Shirley Chisolm
or Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Or perhaps she was a lawyer and helped
Barbara Jordan with the Southern Poverty Law Center.

This determined woman remains
an enigma as the light changes to green
and I turn the corner,
my mind jammed with possibilities.