Broken Walking Stick

There are rabbits on the ceiling
scoping each other out like people
do from across rooms in the night.
Dozens of people stop and lean against
chain link fences that are taller than them
and stare through the numerous openings
at a particularly intense pick up basketball game.
A woman eats her lunch on the back steps of
her office building that leads to the loading dock
so she doesn’t have to make small talk with anyone,
and can continue to focus on the layouts of the magazine
without interruption.
The directions on the homework indicates that some questions
may have multiple answers so we all have to pay attention to
the words in front of us that move around the page like insects
trying not to be seen.
A walking stick breaks while an old traveler is making his way
up the side of a steep hill and when he falls his head splits open
against the gravel.