midnight street sojourn

we stood in the street like scarecrows,
our arms outstretched
as if to catch the breeze.

i walked.
i walked until the sky scorched my face with memories,
down unlit alleys
until my heart hardened.
i huddled beneath deserted bus shelters
by sepia lamplight;
my back ached,
my lungs, sore with longing.
i walked until my feet
scraped the soles of my shoes like rust.

i followed the trickling water
as it rushed down the gutters
of roughly hollowed curbs.

the sky was a brilliant cutting white
a thousand-year-old tortoise,
shuffling out of the sandy vestiges
covering its cracked shell
and anguished soul.

⁠— for Greg