An Urban Tale

Within the color of nightfall,
someone I do not know
steps from the doorway of a tavern,
and asks if my friends and I
can escort her from one block to the next.
We are walking that way—so—
why not? and we are suddenly companions
finding humor in everything around us,
the dancer who cannot dance,
the singer who cannot sing,
the man on the corner with a snare drum—
and then we are with them,
dancing badly with the dancer,
singing badly with the singer,
and one of us pulls out a pair of metal spoons
and joins the drummer.
My three buddies,
the young lady we do not know,
the dancer, the singer,
the man with the drum—
an eruption of color and light,
a melody of laughter and great joy,
and the street and the sidewalks overflow
with a hundred people singing,
smiling, forming a line dance
spreading across the block,
and everywhere we look,
night vibrates into a rainbow.