Philadelphia Pavement

 Beside the busy one-way traffic on Race Street

 under the cantilevered Convention Center roof

 arrayed opposite the Catholic Hospice and a

 bronze homeless Jesus asleep under a bronze

 blanket along the entire length of a bronze bench

 the flattened cardboard boxes, soiled blankets

 wheeled carts heaped with things, an occasional

 chair or small table, the living homeless spread out

 some on their sides, bodies clenched tight in balls,

 others relaxed and sprawled with limbs splayed wide,

 others, standing and stomping, aggressive only in their

 presence here beside the prosperous looking visitors

 on their hurried  way to dinner and drinks in Chinatown