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Broke and Ugly
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“Broke and Ugly.” “Anything Helps Even a Smile,” her sign continued. She stood on a grassy median facing drivers stopped at a light. I sat two lanes over in the back seat of a Lyft with tinted windows.
I don’t know about broke, but I didn’t see ugly. I wondered if her circumstance prompted that self-deprecation? Perhaps she contrived the sign for its irony? Or, did it capture her soul-baring honesty, describing the person that passersby could not possibly see before she fell into their past? Imagining irony, I gave her a smile she could not see. |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joe Catalano practiced law for more than 30 years before he retired in 2018. He has since pursued his interests in photography, high performance driving, travel and writing. He has enjoyed his first OLLI as SF State courses in the spring semester 2019 and thanks the members of the OLLI at SF State Poetry Writing interest group for their input and support. He lives in San Francisco with his wife Joan.
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Vistas & Byways Review is the semiannual journal of fiction, nonfiction and poetry by members of Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at San Francisco State University.
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Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State University (OLLI at SF State) provides communal and material support to the Vistas & Byways volunteer staff.
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