Stranger

A luminous beauty surrounds the street,

In glow of lampshades, married couples

Kiss on couches, reply to young ones,

As a stranger passes the window and sighs.

The street groans as the road filled with traffic

Strains at its leash, teeth in the grin of

The moon overhead, all that was promised

Has not commenced, may never do so.

Traffic roars and the air is damp, to a bar

Strolls the stranger, cigarette in hand, languid

In movement as life provides no drama,

No one to run home to, nor children to tend.

Chatter with friends in the bar’s warm embrace

Solves the problem for the moment, offers a balance,

Some protection from the silence building slowly,

Though the tread to bed finds his eyes focussing.

An iridescent beauty surrounds the street,

The stranger stares through apartment windows

At all that is not his, and all his failures

Return to haunt him one by one, like demons.

He stares into the future with great uncertainty,

Love floats from afar, where once he was happy,

Now gets between empty sheets, freshly cleaned,

Safe as houses, alone with his thoughts, again.

JRTF

06/10/14