I was sitting on a bench
outside the Mile-End Mission
hoping to bum a conversation
from some passerby.
Cars shushed or growled by
along rue St. Urbain,
metal and glass anonymous containers
of stories I would never hear.
One of the Mission habitues
brushed the debris from the sidewalk.
Things were happening. Lord, I thought,
This is a city! This is Montreal!
Things are always happening here...

