hump tender_square i am crossing two intersecting downtown streets, stepping into a large city square. chain-link fences have been erected past the sidewalks and i step into a narrow path that has been made as road-hole patching had been completed. the workers did a crap job; the asphalt is mounded in huge humps. In this fenced area, i continue to walk in the open space. there is no one else about on the ground. there is a big stage, or rather two stages, and volunteers are preparing for festivities. i walk east toward one stage and the man standing at the podium has a sweep of hair in front of his face. i double-take because it seems like a disgraced politician but there is no security detail flanking him. the stage north of the first has musicians practicing. i climb the steps onto the stage. two former classmates from high school are singing at the microphone together, and a third stands nearby on stage right. i pass without notice and do not linger. i exit stage left and take eight or ten steps down to the ground. as i’m making contact with ground, i look up and see a large television screen advertising that a terrible local lawyer-poet is getting an award from the city for his work. the screen shows the man shaking hands with another man and smiling. 230608 what's it to you? who go blather from