Coffees and Chocolates

Miles off my city's lights and sounds and colors
Where time's with purpose for strange men
Shuffling brisk to work under colorless umbrellas
And slow and sweet for strange girls from class
With upturned lips aimless in pinks and skirts
And sandals, young through drops with wet hair
And clean skin, to warm with coffees and chocolates


Far from my city's horns and falling flecks of light
Under the lamppost's ambers and neon purple
And streetlight's greens and reds and brief yellow
With strangers under awnings, our worlds shrunk to
These dry points of land and smoke, mine and theirs
Wafting from our pocket of dry air to the storm
Huddled as candles guarding each other's fire


Miles from my city's sweet foods and soft companions
And friends with stories and wants and plans
Solitary man, just cold steel rails feet apart
But miles and miles over distance to horizon
Into nothingness eternal, the tree's greens a muted
Green, the sky's blue gone under blankets of rolling
Grays tinged black above sheets of silver sparkles


Far off my city's walls and roof and fires
Under showers cold, face pale under brim, fingers
Cold tucked in pockets damp and knees cold and sodden
Legs and arms and feet shivering frozen
With sparrows tucked under limbs and mice under logs
To walk alone, but for a stray, his coat and mine of water
Both hungry and tired onto skeptic fate together


Miles off my city's streets and homes of refuge
In a world familiar, of browns and grays and
Muted greens, without the strange men and girls
And work to while or coffees and chocolates
Away from the lights and horns and awnings to meet
The stray familiar stranger with smoke like mine
And friends with tales and now and futures



-DyMc