One night traveling a Green Tortoise bus
         San Francisco to Seattle,
The rear of the bus converted to pads for sleeping,
Sleeping on my back as we plunged through pouring rain,
         the other weary passengers sleeping,
Suddenly something moving in my beard and under my nose
         woke me up —
Opening my eyes in the darkness
         I saw in the flickering headlight patterns
         of passing cars
The small foot of the little girl sleeping
         beside her mother.
Cleansmelling childfoot flower stretching beneath my nose
         as she changed position in her dream.
Gently pushing it away, careful not to wake her,
         I drifted off to sleep
Thinking how many men who never had a child
         are visited by a childhood foot
         slowly sliding through their beards
         opening their eyes to
         its perfect shape in the twilight?
Suddenly out of Eternity coming to me
         white and pink and smelling good,
For the first time in my life
         a little girl’s naked foot
         woke me up.