THE MARKET PLACE

The hustle and bustle

is the same, day after day.

So many vendors

peddling their wares,

barking and bartering

with patrons.

A cacophony 

in the mercato.

Hordes haggling

with hordes.

The mind is like this

with its chorus of voices 

all wheeling and dealing 

for what they want.

And there we are

each of us 

lone figures

in our belfries

bearing witness 

to the brokering barrage 

below and wanting only 

to incite a silence 

that drapes the city  

in stillness

but the tower 

in which we stand

lacks the rope 

to sound the chimes.