Richard Berengarten

When she sang in the white alley

When she sang

in the white alley beside

the covered fruit market

 

the cheesemakers

and yoghurt pourers sighed

in their large blouses

 

a legless beggar, perched

on cardboard in his colonnade

stopped twitching his lips

 

for five long seconds

the corner butcher held

his cleaver in mid swipe

 

a ringletted redhead’s irises

from their habitual brown     

burned gold streaked green

 

and the woman selling

strawberries laughed

remembering something

 

 

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grace                                                  in                                              pure white