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AT AMSTERDAM STATION FOR FIRST TIME (Free verse) by kawakurdi
How nice to be a stranger
In a stranger town, a stranger time,
meeting total strangers!
How beautiful is ignorance, illiteracy,
the lack of language!
Now you can play the game of being a child again
I signal with my fingers to the drink.
- That one. Coke!
Emm!
Like a child I pull out a handful of change
Put it all on my palm
And stretch my hand to the beautiful lady
Is this enough?
She looks at what is in my hand with excitement
One by one she picks the coins up
Counts them with primitive pleasure
As if she too has turned into a child with me
She picks some very, very tiny bits
She holds a 25 coin as small as a shirt button
With her very, very slim fingers
And breathes in a sigh of relief
She completes the game with triumph:
Yes, yes, you have enough
in fact you have a 25 too much!
She tells me without words!
She looks at me in the eyes and gives me
a smile!
She gives me the coke and the tiny 25.
I take it.
I am sad the game is over.
She is now busy with someone else.
But I look around.
Thank God, I do not know anyone.
I do not understand anything.
The streets, shops, cafes, telephone boxes,
trains and all are new to me
I am a total stranger!
How beautiful to be a total stranger!
How pleasant to be an idiot!
How wonderful to play the game of being a child again!!
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