She knew the whole time
What I took for recognition
Was
But was not
She did not recognize my smile
Not my familiar embrace
Nor temperance
She understood only their passing
In the shade of a cool, fall evening
Someone I mistook for friend
Returned my smile and left
Nothing less than her presence spoke
But it must have been a whisper
One that broke upon the dash
Through the window and beyond
Lost and gone
Scaterring forever in the distance of memory

The man began to rise, his jacket full of holes
Noting nothing, he misses his surroundings
The poor light, the smell, his own home
He falls back, too weak to support himself
Blinking should wash the past
It used to help
The alcohol seems more a baptism, these days
Than the tears before
Before the light winks out
And he closes his eyes
Something rattles, all too closely

Cold and windy, the night sky bleeds
Lamplight reflects warm on scabbing concrete
Cigarette feels small in clammy hands
As I stand in the midst of the end
I notice only what I cannot ignore
I ignore that which is blinding
And in the end, find nothing
Newspaper reads of war, and famine
These things do not concern me
My famine is ending
My war beginning