like a sigh in the night
the hem of your coat against the sidewalk,
a brush lighter than fingertips
when you think i'm asleep.
noiseless night
getting up toe to toe with the moon,
open to the harvest spotlight
and sneaking creeping slithering
the only sound
is the final catch of the lock, my breath.
the choke rises in my neck
threatening the larynx, the cords
that pull me all together to force out
just a handful of tumbled words:
where do you go,
when you cannot be still on these nights?
you crouch on streetcorners,
light up cloves in doorways blacker than black,
the fire a pinprick of singularity
a light offering no path
no tunnel, no hope, no solidarity.
the grey panic of waking
to realize that you are gone:
where do you go,
what dreams are you walking without me?