Pebble in My Shoe

Sometimes I think that poetry should be prefaced by same silly little paragraph like this that says what and why the poem is. Other times I think such paragraphs ruin the poem - if it cannot stand alone then does it really serve a purpose? That is what you must decide...

pebble in my shoe

Today I went out
for a cigarette a nasty
habit my wallet
has yet to develop
the courage to break.

I stood a while
at the railing
stooping
in the shadows
sunlight
playing elsewhere
in the yard.

Watching, leaning,
on the rail, a girl
about five years of age
chasing a cat
kitten, on a bike.

a quiet street,
there is no
fear
for them
down the center.

Considering
her chattering
in a foreign tongue
I found foreign
a memory of a lady
smiling from my couch;
a pebble in my shoe.

Later
went to pay bills
with the sun
glaring, baking winter's
chill from the streets, bones,
I heard an angel
whispering
behind me rolling along;
that pebble in my shoe.

Sky graying,
mind twitching, unwilling
to focus - desires
no right to;
a pebble in my shoe.

_{(For JL 04/14/2009)}