Ryan Fletcher

Answers: Downtown Strangers

Exercise 1:

An overweight Asian man is sitting in a cafe

with headphones playing music,

a cup full of coffee

and a laptop playing cartoons.

He sits opposite a thick window pane

dividing the cafe and the street

where a poor white man

has just ridden by on his second-hand bicycle

towing a shopping cart

full of all his worldly possessions

smoking a cigarette.

In downtown rush hour,

these two happened upon a common path

in the corner of my eye.

And both had blown it,

because they could have met,

and they both could have known it,

But they were distracted,

The poor man by survival,

And the Asian man by choice.

They passed right on by,

And neither said hi,

And neither knew,

How close their worlds actually were

in that moment.

Exercise 2:

1. The man was so overweight he couldn't bend over and tie his shoelaces.

2. Have you ever purchased a second-hand car?

3. Sometimes rush hour is so bad in my city, that it's faster to ride my

bike than take my car.

4. Freedom of choice is something that is often taken for granted.

5. Jane was distracted from her studying by constant interruptions from the

ringing of her cell phone.

6. Often life in the jungle is possible due to the unwritten law of survival

of the fittest.

7. Actually, I prefer to live in the city.

8. If Tom had studied harder, he wouldn't have blown his final exam.

9. Unfortunately Tom's path through life has not been an easy one.

10. Last year, Tom lost all his possessions when a fire destroyed his

apartment.