Creating “Pusher”

I went to Colorado for the first time and visited family whom I had not seen in years.  We did lots of wonderful things and went to many wonderful places.  The trip was all too brief.  One afternoon, we walked downtown Denver.  There were lots of panhandlers.  The one who caught my eye was the man with a bucket and a sign that read “Will use this money to buy weed.”  Back home, reliving the trip, I put two impressions from the trip together and wrote “Pusher.”

Extract from “Pusher”

“The Doctor” stands

At the corner

Of the street

Smiling at passersby.

Afterthoughts for "Pusher"

Nobody dast blame this man.... For a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life. He don't put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell you the law or give you medicine. He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back--that's an earthquake. And then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you're finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory.

-Arthur Miller. Death of a Salesman

You know the value of every article of merchandise, but if you don't know the value of your own soul, it's all foolishness.

-Rumi

Myself when young did eagerly frequent doctor and saint, and heard great argument about it and about: but evermore came out by the same door as in I went.

-Omar Khayyam