Munday on Monday: Sharing a sidewalk

It’s crowded on the sidewalk path

Where some who walk will spur our wrath;

For courtesy has gone kaput

And selfishness is now afoot.

Pedestrians in threes may rile —

Won’t relegate to single file,

But hold formation, broad and wide,

To make all others step aside.

And cyclists whom we chance to meet

(Who use the sidewalk as a street)

Again assume that walkers shoo

To let the cyclists whiz on through.

My question of this brinkmanship:

If we can’t share this concrete strip

That’s just five feet across to span it —

Then how can we all share the planet?

This story was originally published February 19, 2017 at 4:24 PM with the headline "Munday on Monday: Sharing a sidewalk."