Little Buddha Man

Walking back to the office on New York Ave I crossed the busy intersection and looked for a place to sit down so I could enjoy the sun for a while. Two benches to my right was this golden-brown buddha lump of a man sitting down, not only enjoying the sun, but worshiping the sun. He had his navy blue “Delaware” shirt pulled up over his enormous belly, rubbing and caressing and patting the massive hairless bulb that sprung forth from his spine as if it were made out of plaster, perfectly smooth, light brown, and orb like. Passerbyers snickered and gawked and rolled their eyes and looked away and pretended not to see him sitting there in plain view for all of New York Ave to see. They passed by with their suits and their ties and their slacks and their sashes tied around their necks because ladies don’t wear ties but they wear pants now because women can do that now although on a day like this I bet even men would want to be wearing dresses or skirts and not these darn fancy slacks that absorb the heat instead of letting the cool air swirl around your their legs and up…

Then he put his shirt behind his head, you know, in that way where he is still wearing it but the whole front of his body is exposed, as if he is wearing it like a backpack. He patted his chest, rubbed his belly again, then cocked his head back and rested it on the top of the bench, praising the rays sent from heaven, inviting them into his soul…men and women hurried by with their sunglasses on, scurrying to get back into their offices, back in front of their computers. A lady walked by our sunbathing buddha with a bag of merchandise she just picked up from the latest hot retail store, or maybe the local fresh foods store, and she tripped. Not because she was looking at our man, but because she was wearing these slip on clod hoppers of shoes and she had to walk like C-3PO from Star Wars to keep the shoes on her feet as she stepped to and fro precariously in style.

I have to wear these clothes for one more day. I got a job as a host in a restaraunt downtown, it’s a very political, social, and diverse place right near U street. The lady that interviewed me had either the prettiest eyes I have ever seen, or the scariest. At one point during the interview she high-fived me. I knew I was home.

The sun god man took out a bottle of water and unscrewed the cap as he watched the cars piling up at the stop lights, cop cars flying by with sirens blaring, and part of me hoped he would not only drink it, but that he would take a sip and then look at the bottle, the H2O swirling around in his mouth and in the plastic container, and then tip his head back and pour the rest of the water down his front side. Everyone would stop to look at him, maybe in disgust, maybe they would laugh, maybe cars would crash and busses would burn and those cop cars that just flew by would have to come right back, but I know that everyone watching, everyone on the street, everyone in the cars, everyone in their cubicles on New York Ave and H St. NW would look at him and think to themselves, “damn. that’s exactly what I want to do.”

Our little buddha man, a head on top of a mound of flesh, enjoying life.

~ by kevinthomas on March 30, 2006.