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Bill Falcetano is an occasional contributor to The Somerville Times. A former professor of philosophy, he divides his time between Somerville and Gloucester.
EPIPHANY AT TWIN DONUTS
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Bill Falcetano
Driving down Beacon Street at night
Cobblestones freshly wet from rain
Glistening in the moonlight
And there at the intersection
At the intersection there
Was a coffee shop
At which I’d sometimes stop.
Its flashing neon sign
Blew my mind.
It was a beacon
Casting a sharp light
Down Beacon Street.
I thought it was neat
How the sign,
Lighting at different intervals,
Made a kind
Of urban poem
From these two words alone:
Twin
Donuts
Twin Donuts
Twin
Donuts
Twin Donuts
And the rhythm repeated
And the rhythm repeated
Again and again hypnotically,
And I, a captive in the car, at the red light
Counting the beats
Intoning the words
Chanting in the driver’s seat
On that moonlit night:
Twin
Donuts
Twin Donuts
Twin
Donuts
Twin Donuts
And there and there and there
I had an epiphany of sorts.
Hot coffee steaming upwards,
Perfect circular donuts
Covered with powdered sugar.
It was there I met Lord Buddha.
It was there there there
Under the flashing neon sign,
My bodhi tree,
Where Lord Buddha met me –
At the Twin Donuts
Past the Burger King
Where greasy smoke would spill out.
It was not a nice thing
For the Day Care Center next door.
But in places such as this, one can see more
A kind of jazz in all things mundane –
They
No longer
Will look
To me
The same.
— Bill Falcetano
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