and the music filled the night

                                                A people must have dignity and identity.

Andrew Goodman

A cold and windy night near Union Square in San Francisco

The streets were almost empty

The sound: A street musician playing his clarinet and "Greensleeves" pushes it way through the air; turning the corners; rising to touch the buildings that scrape the sky; and surrounding me like a cloak

The soundtrack of a San Francisco night

 as he handled the music with dignity and accepted tips

 as though he were playing at the Top of the Mark.

The sight: a man deep in a doorway keeps his back to me.

 He makes his newspaper bed 

with care

lining his shoes neatly  next to his bed,

 he gets ready to meet the night on the streets with dignity

the music

filled the night

 and the sight followed me back 

to my fancy hotel

and I could not sleep 

with dignity

and that's poetiquejustis

He who shuts his ears to the cries of the poor will be ignored in his own time of need.

 Proverbs 21:13