You deceived me with your charming smile,
I mistook the devious glint in your eye for infatuation,
I ate up every promise of adventure.
I carved my marks into the plains of your back,
I soaked up every flavour your body had to offer with my lips.
I wrote you a thousand letters,
Then burned them hoping somehow the wind would give you my message.

Out in time
to see the last bits of sunshine
as I walk to work.

The moon is just this side
of stained teeth yellow
but after the night clouds clear
the white light face reappears.

A dark blue or black car
slowly drives through
like it is stalking me.
So, I move on as quickly
and quietly
as my anxiety
and feet allow me.

Thin dry brown vines
wrap around the black fence,
while the lite green
slowly dehydrating
leaves
line up on a broken tree limb
ready to fall
for the seasonal crumbling.

A ***** brown bearded stranger
lays in the doorway
perhaps he is
too tired to worry about the danger
or he is too drunk to stay awake.
His head rests on a white garbage bag
with indiscernible contents.

In an open-air café
two people talk
the night away
while a stranger sits
nondescript
on a black bench.
The patrons leave a tip
but the stranger grabs it
and swiftly walks away.

Strangers hold hands
and walk.
Stranger stare in the distance
and talk
on their cellphones.
Strangers do not make eye contact
but it is their silent plea
for some humanity
that makes me smile
and greet them politely.

Until, the night leads me
to where I work security,
an overnight shift
perfectly fitting to
my desire to be alone.

Blood and bone be my witness,
The heart is struck with great an illness.
Waste, is her name.
The time of day would go away just as it came.

Seeing the hours tick
And hearing my watch’s click,
Would give me more reason
To accuse my mind of high treason.

Its only duty is to obey me,
And yet my ideas drift, as though they were on sea.
Strange is this mind.
Too often cruel, rather than kind.

I saw you throwing stones on the old wooden pier
I turned to look away I never saw you disappear

My distraction was the ripples rolling up along the sand
The bubbles in the water and a fist clenching hand

The silence that did follow Sent chills along my spine
I still don’t know your name I never cared because you weren’t mine

what
do
we hear
in
the
sanctuary near
the
tapping of
kalimba butterfly wings
oh
lord
the sound is clear