The few poems I've read from William Carlos Williams have been about very ordinary things. Things that I probably wouldn't have written a poem about, but today I thought about a guy I wanted to write a poem about. I was out driving and it was fairly windy, and I ended up stopped at an intersection where three of the corners had people with signs for King's Mattresses. They were having trouble keeping their signs up in the wind and looked pretty miserable. But they reminded me of a guy I saw doing the same job over the summer. He was literally one of the happiest people I have ever seen. Just out there everyday, holding his sign, waving at people and being happy. So this poem is about that happy man.
Happy Man on the Street Corner
I've been down this way over three times
this week and he is always there,
the happy man holding a sign
telling me to buy discount mattresses.
He is happy,
happy to be himself,
smiling and waving at everyone
who drives by during their busy
unhappy lives while this man is
happy, and I don't know why.
Copyright 2007 William Curb
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