A Sidewalk Tale - a poem by Mike Lambert - Vistas & Byways Review

Poetry

photo by Mike Lambert

A Sidewalk Tale
by Mike Lambert

Photo by Toni Lambert

Strolling down an unfamiliar street
in the City, last spring;
Trying to find relief from
the legendary Writer’s Block,
that has been reported to afflict
Others more talented than me.

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Oh, how it pains me, this Block;
This absence of ideas, for a year and more.
Will this new scene resurrect my senses?
And give me more stories to tell?
Or, am I forever doomed to Mentalis Blockitis?
A scourge from the ages.

Looking sideways at a pretty girl going by,
I stumble into a sign,
placed on the sidewalk.

Who put this sign in my way?
I ask out loud.
A man could stumble--
a woman could stumble;
Anyone could stumble.

Isn’t there a law banning street clutter
to protect innocent pedestrians?

Recovering my balance, I read
the first lines of the sign:
“You May tell a tale
that takes up residence
in someone’s soul,”

Whose sign is this? I grumble.
Where am I on this dreadful street?
This strange neighborhood,
with no concern for the safety of mankind?

I regain my balance and look up.
Oh, Hell!
It is some dumb bookstore,
trying to entice a passerby to enter
with its know-it-all writers’ philosophy
and cutesy graphics.

Well, they won’t get me to enter,
with such a specious entreaty, I decide.

Then, I read some more of the sign
standing in my way:
“Becomes their blood,
and self, and purpose.”

Ye Gads! I mutter,
How pretentious of someone;
Some over-confident writer,
or self-appointed observer of the literary scene.

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To suggest that a writer’s words
could infect a reader’s blood, and self,
and purpose, with a simple tale.

The Writer’s Seer continued:
“That tale will move them,
and drive them,
and who knows what,
they might do,”

That’s a scary thought,
I think to myself.

Are the writers of Horror Tales,
Vampire Tales,
and Murder Tales,
responsible for all the grim things
that happen in this world?

No! I yell out loud.
My stories, my tales, are mine alone.
No one can take them!
Unless--

Unless someone reads them,
And understands my mind.
Hmmmm.
I don’t know what readers of my tales may do.
Could they do Good Things?
Is there still Charity in the world?

And then, the Writer’s Seer won me over:
“Because of it, Because of your words.”

Who is this Writer’s Seer? I wondered.
The sidewalk Sign gave the attribution:
Erin Morgenstern;
The Night Circus

I will have to look up that person, I decided.
Do a Google search.
After I go home and write the story
of A Sidewalk Tale.

About Mike Lambert
click to read Bio

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Mike Lambert is a long-time resident of San Francisco and led the effort to start Vistas & Byways in the fall of 2015. In an earlier life, he worked in the telecommunications industry for 35 years and taught at SFSU’s College of Business for 15 years. He refutes the adage about old dogs and new tricks. He took up creative writing as a hobby at age 75. He recently self-published two novels and a collection of his short stories. His main fictional character is Jessica Jones, a single working girl in contemporary San Francisco. See his Author page at Amazon under the name of M. L. Lambert for more details.