I met someone today.
Well-dressed,
Eloquent,
Mindful.
He spoke of poetry
Like it’s conversational.
His words breathed roses
And pierced like fires.
Sat across from him
Was another particular man
With eyes as baggy as the moon
And a resolve yet to flash to embers.
A peculiar tool hangs by his hips
A worn and chipping camera
Whose shutter screams of light
And of the truth beyond a lie of words.
Another man comes in.
Clean, neat, with a keen eye.
He spoke little, never had to
For his hands stood still as stone.
Yet they were graceful,
Precise, and cutting-edge,
Who heals scars too big for love
And lives too soon to die.
And I wanted to be like them.
The giants who stand toe to toe.
Breaking the world as it is
And making it whole again.
I wonder where they came from,
Whose faces bear exactly mine
Like once children we were
Before the sun had set upon us.
Somewhere in the universe,
I was once like them.
But that universe is here,
Cold, despaired, and unrelenting.
We knew it, so we shared beer,
Exchanged words, laughs,
And occasionally the realities,
And we enjoyed it.
And as clock struck midnight,
We all said our farewells.
I knew each and every farewell.
By heart, and by memory.
To hear them one more time is a gift.
Much like the talents I once left behind.
But they belong to someone else.
Someone behind the silk-velvet curtains.
Jan 29
Jan 29, 2026 at 9:02 AM UTC
I met someone today.
Well-dressed,
Eloquent,
Mindful.
He spoke of poetry
Like it’s conversational.
His words breathed roses
And pierced like fires.
Sat across from him
Was another particular man
With eyes as baggy as the moon
And a resolve yet to flash to embers.
A peculiar tool hangs by his hips
A worn and chipping camera
Whose shutter screams of light
And of the truth beyond a lie of words.
Another man comes in.
Clean, neat, with a keen eye.
He spoke little, never had to
For his hands stood still as stone.
Yet they were graceful,
Precise, and cutting-edge,
Who heals scars too big for love
And lives too soon to die.
And I wanted to be like them.
The giants who stand toe to toe.
Breaking the world as it is
And making it whole again.
I wonder where they came from,
Whose faces bear exactly mine
Like once children we were
Before the sun had set upon us.
Somewhere in the universe,
I was once like them.
But that universe is here,
Cold, despaired, and unrelenting.
We knew it, so we shared beer,
Exchanged words, laughs,
And occasionally the realities,
And we enjoyed it.
And as clock struck midnight,
We all said our farewells.
I knew each and every farewell.
By heart, and by memory.
To hear them one more time is a gift.
Much like the talents I once left behind.
But they belong to someone else.
Someone behind the silk-velvet curtains.
Request permission to use this poem