The short Hispanic woman selling blinking plastic light-sticks from a
shopping cart offers a collegial fist bump to the guy in the wheel
chair selling bunches of roses from his lap, then continues down the
block.
A black man, so thin he swims in his all black shirt and
trousers, break dances next to an oversize speaker. Popping, locking,
giving it his all, beads of sweat on his bald head when he takes off his
top hat with sequined, Shamrock-green band.
At the end of the song, no one puts money in his jar. No one buys roses, or light-sticks--not that I see.
But perhaps the night is still young. Maybe at a later hour, there are buyers on Hollywood Boulevard to complement the sellers.
This
all takes place on the sidewalk in front of the America Eagle, with its
clean glass storefront underneath the sign that exhort in block
letters: LIVE YOUR LIFE.
Next to these words, a ten-foot photo of
two women, elegant and gaunt, sylphs haunting a cool green forest. Their
shoulder blades jut under loose, summer linen, hinting at wings.
The wheelchair guy moves to try a different spot. The black dancer searches his playlist for a better song.
The 217 bus comes and takes me away.
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