Poetry in Motion

I travel by bus everyday to and from work, and I've noticed something I've not seen in any other city's public transport - poetry! There's a program called "Poetry in motion" whereby select poems from (I think) local poets are displayed in the Trimet buses. Not only are they a good way to spend an otherwise uneventful journey, sometimes the pieces are surprisingly good. Today I read this on my way home, and because I don't want to forget it, here it is:

I Confess

I stalked her
in the grocery store: her crown
of snowy braids held in place by a great silver clip,
her erect bearing, radiating tenderness,
the way she placed yogurt and avocados in her basket,
beaming peace like the North Star.
I wanted to ask, "what aisle did you find
your serenity in, do you know how
to be married for 50 years, or how to live alone,
excuse me for interrupting, but you seem to possess
some knowledge that makes the earth burn and turn on its axis"
but we don't request such things from strangers
nowadays. So I said, "I love your hair."

--Alison Luterman