The Man With the Unshaven Face, by Ruth Blair Moyers

The Man With the Unshaven Face
(People Watching in Carytown)

He sits and scans
his eyes dart from word to word
skimming lines
faster than I can think.
The side of his eye bruised but
he doesn't look like the type of man
to get in a bar fight
was he mugged?
His coffee mug was.
it's dejectedly covered
by the brown paper napkin
to protect it from the flies.

He glances upward,
dragging his eyes away
from his book.
His blue eyes gleam and
scan the room with curiosity and a wonder
as they did his book.
They look tired and world weary.

His neglected coffee
is now cuddled in his hands
being sipped delicately,
his brown caterpillar moustache
sticking out from his royal blue mug
his beard tickling.

He then recovers his mug
and begins the intense
process of scanning
and absorbing the book,
the red book.

Now his look softens,
and now I wonder,
what is he reading?

RUTH BLAIR MOYERS