A man in Flint wears a brown beret,

A man in Flint wears a brown beret,
Keeps quiet about the news.
His anger is loud, he picks up an old newspaper
And swats a fly on the window. Like a flower,
It withers and fades. The bus pulled to a stop
Beside the old woman, and she climbs aboard,
All smiles and cheers. Her face is a cloud of smiles
On a stormy day. The rain falls outside.
On the beach, a man named Joseph scours
The beach for forgotten pennies,
Pennies he could trade in at the bank for twenty dollar
Bills. His mother tells him he must love Jesus,
A man who has died years before,
He must pray to him every day.
All the while, his great-aunt, Trixie, scolds him for reading
A book about the Buddha, and he lives alone.