see and be seen in poetry

I people-watched inside the mall
I broke for a brief burrito bowl
I wandered for two hours leisurely
remarking on what shops had changed
I stuck a fiver in a massage chair
then ended up in a chain bookstore
reading a thing I’d wanted to read
but not enough to pay full retail
in a nice soft chair with coffee
thinking, if there is a heaven
if I turn out to have been good
but not exactly great then this
this would be my mostly-heaven
and this heaven would be enough

eventually I stepped outside
into the summer sunshine and
the heat of the asphalt lot
beyond that climate-control
waiting for my ride to show
in that harsh light of day
left thinking “these humans”
humans are so fascinating strange
and so bottomless diverse in their
multifarious human strangeness that
if they weren’t so shortsighted greedy
if they weren’t so cruel to each other
I could stand to live forever
I could stand to live this life forever
just watching them
just watching people do their thing
until the very stars themselves burn out
watching them talk out their lunch choices
their relationships or last night’s teevee
what clothes they want and what they dream
if they could just manage that
instead of always killing each other
I could stand to watch these people forever
from behind a good book in a comfy chair
I would do this very thing forever
it could be my mostly-heaven