it tolls for thee

i'm sitting in the sun and my black jeans are soaking in the heat - still with a breeze i'm warm in that way that the sun just wraps you up, and you never get hot, just lightly toasted. this park is not exactly luscious, but it is grassy and it is well used, the way a park should be.

nearby a group of men sit, rough looking and dirty sneakers, one with ropey dreads, some older some younger. strolling through the green space a man plays a clarinet, stopping at the fountain for sips. i am alone, killing time before meeting a friend. the man with the dreads states out loud, this is the life - sunshine, good music, beautiful people.
at first they're talking about getting busted, for pot, in the park. i must have just missed it, their buddy it seems. which turns into a discussion on public consumption and the legalization of marijuana. they are sipping tall boys as they speak. suddenly they are talking about wine, about some new law passed in Europe, about mixing red wine and mineral water to make a fake rose. one seems to feel that the anything-to-make-a-buck mentality only leads to diminished products. minutes later i hear talk of Valerie Bertinelli, and her weight loss and Jenny Craig. the older man seems to think her new bikini body is hot, another disagrees. then it's back to discussing that friend of theirs, and his drug addiction, his crack. they don't seem too impressed with him.

i see my friend coming up the block. just as i get up to leave dread-man wonders out loud, where is so-and-so, another comments, no man's an island, he will be back.