*

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

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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