People-Watching

                                                                    Caton Woodville




SIMPLY SNICKERS
http://rinklyrimes.blogspot.com/2009/04/going-under.html
has supplied another intriguing picture to ponder upon.

PEOPLE-WATCHING!

Are you a People Watcher? It's one of my favourite hobbies.

I keep watching, waiting, wondering in streets and shops and lobbies.

I wonder 'Are they married?' or 'What did she see in him?'

Or 'I think she must be thirty' or 'He looks rather grim.'

I wonder where folk come from and where  they're going to.

I guess their nationalities and their marital status too.

Sitting idly at a bus stop I can have the greatest time;

Thinking rude, but private, thoughts has never been a crime.

I can pass a happy hour or two drinking just one cup of tea,

For in every local restaurant there's food for thought for me.

Should I overhear some chat I'm in a private state of bliss!

'Why is that one saying that and this one saying this?'

It isn't that I'm nosey! (Well, alright, I am, a bit)

It's just that life's a puzzle and I make the pieces fit.

*

'Take these three gentlemen above..... they seem to fit the bill!

A fascinating trio and they're all grist to my mill.

(I'm the lady in the corner... you can't see me but I'm there;

In my shawl and bonnet on a little wooden chair!

With eyes downcast demurely I look modest and polite

But I am People Watching in a frenzy of delight!)

'Did they all arrive together or have they met by chance?

It's rather hard to gauge it with a surreptitious glance.

The bearded one looks worried. Is the hatted one his brother?

And is the letter that he reads a worrying one from Mother?

I wonder what's the matter. Should they return post haste?

Is there some awful tragedy at home that must be faced?

Then there's that other fellow; the dark glasses mean he's blind.

And yet he reads the paper! That so excites my mind!

Does he know the seated brothers?  Have they all met here by chance?

No! I'm sure I overheard their destination! Paris! France!

Oh now the plot is thickening! The 'blind' one is a spy!

( I am a nice Victorian girl but I am inclined to pry!)

They're going to catch the packet! The letter is a clue!

Is it from their bosses telling them what to do?

Are they looking at the paper for news about their crime?

Oh! If it were a murder! Wouldn't that be just sublime!

And what about that Gladstone bag? It looks a mite suspicious!

There might be a skull inside it! That would be delicious!

*

The stage-coach has arrived you say! And they're not getting on!

Something exciting will happen

The minute that I've gone!'

*

People Watching! What a hobby! Even way back then.

I'm off to Watch some People!

 People Watching once again!

*


See more paintings and poems here:
http://rinklyrimes.blogspot.com/2008/11/207-parting-of-ways.html
http://rinklyrimes.blogspot.com/2008/11/214-ouch.html