He’s a

vagabond in the shuffle of midnight’s rain
having to seek respite in the corner
garbage bin the wooden kind
built to sustain leftovers from the kitchen table
and convenient for the residue of him.

Once he too shared life’s divine
using cutlery shiny in its newness
a table set for four and wife lovely and the
two of them causing love to run wild

then the bills and the sickness after the car
escaped the highway and life turned pages and
his future began to fold.

Now he’s here in the twilight of life’s flow
a man no longer able to contain
the bottle he brings to lips to forget---to forget.

© Richard L. Provencher