SAYING NOTHING ON WALNUT STREET

For once thinking of the right

Thing to say, not later on:

At a Beckett play at Annenberg

A Penn student snapped open

A can as the second act started

And a Dublin actor looked up

At him and said nothing, an

Inquisitive Irish face staring

Into darkness, without a word

As if challenging the Atlantic,

Before the talk resumed, one

Lost man to another, with no

Interruptions to the silence

The comedians on-stage defying

Anyone to out-clown their despair.