Only moments ago
when dogs weren’t barking,
and arctic chills hadn’t yet run up my spine;
before the brightness of today,
had yet to burn into my retinas,
and these eyes hadn’t seen the beginnings,
of a snow falling day.

I was in the jungle,
high in paradise,
kissing foreign girls,
with foreign tongues,
and speaking to old friends,
in languages i did not know,
about things i did not care for.

Riding frivolously down the ‘wrong’ path,
headed in the opposite direction,
only to be corrected,
by a friendly local, explaining,
“Love, love is in that direction;
the one you just came,
and from whence you will return.”

And the night fell, and tourists grew scared,
for the streets held all sorts of responsibilities,
and although i had been crying,
those lovely tears of joy, after being handed
the red rock of my fate, by a man seeming friend,
not long after dark,
he was forcing bags into unsuspecting customers’ hands.

after refusing, after breaking off from the rest,
as they attempted to coral me,
and the bag of loot in my hand
barricades had no effect, as my heart and soul,
this vibrating force of nature not to be reckoned with,
shed its timidity, its apprehensiveness,
and revealed that black leopard coat and delta growl,

and instead of opening up that beast,
to let it tear through those wanting the best of me,
i stretched myself out, in a warm bed,
and opened my eyes to see,
the dog curled up at my feet,
and a slit of sunlight from outside,
lights now off, day now on.