Driving on a gloomy night,
You spot a mass from afar.
Its eyes peer,
Like dear
Into the bright unknown.

"keep driving, he is the man in rags"

The light fades
Into the vacuum of darkness,
The man is left behind.

Many call him homeless
Yet he is loveless,
The man sweep the streets
With the rags
That hang on his back
Jingles a can
Pleading for change
Yet he still gets the same answer.

"keep walking, its the man in rags"

People wonder
Why doesn't he just get a job
Like the rest of us,
Yet the man
Can't hear the question  
His freedom is wrapped
In the rags
That drag after him.
Blind to change,
Can't hear the future.

"just keep talking, its just the man in rags"

A young couple
Chats about last nights tv show
While the man rambles
About scratch marks
On the leather seats
Of his 76 ford f150.
Her screams stained the carpet so much
That he had to sell it
To the devil
So he can live
With his foolish mistakes.

Yet he hasn't
Because he still can't take stop
For an answer,
He pushes street corners
Repeating himself
Like a wind up toy
Yet we wind him back up

"just keep walking, he is just the man in rags"

And I want to tell her that I understand
what it feels like to be fake, insignificant,
and a shadow on the sidewalk of society.

And I want to tell her that I also borrow
the experiences of others --
that I, too, learn feelings
by stopping and staring at personal wreckage,
like a tourist of emotions,
like an inevitable wish of a human being.

tiny, blue frame; dented and worn
weak whisper, fragile heart
means that allowed, a quiet trust to born
silent cries, a retrospect start

impossibly ignored, bold change
you first, a timely trade, pre-arranged
confident, commanding; one-eighty in stride
elated; awaiting the destination of this ride

But you always knew
He never gives you
His heart

Tick-tock twilight tempest
lone saunter by the beach
neath stars and moonlit embers
Home shies in restive reach

Treading a boardwalk with my lover
built above waters, calm yet obscure;
for what may live within those depths
and hungers for a bite?

We walk to a missing section of path,
a plummet to the waters below
and further on, across the gap,
the walk proceeds as was.

I jump toward the other side:
I miss and fall, a splash.
A spider, big and black as pitch,
I see beneath the boardwalk.

The fear sets in, I cannot swim
but my lover helps me up and out:
I jump again and again I miss
and fall back to the water.

Now my clothes are drenched and weighed
and so starts my descent:
I see the monsters whose home, the sea,
and fear sets in again.

A movement, splash, into the water;
someone to save my life?
I surge myself towards the surface
but fall back to the gloom.

The air is spent from in my lungs,
my lights are quickly fading.
But suddenly an arm extends
and wraps around my torso.

My savior carries and heaves me to land,
water escapes my lungs in cough
and when I meet my savior's eyes
then who's to find?

Myself.