Sinister stranger,

Sitting on the train;

Why do you smile so?

I saw your stare…

Predatory elements kept to bare minimum,

everyone vaccinated against painful sin.

Those purple mountains sprouting spritely,

what’s seen also heard in a mind’s eye…

Face seemed pale in the starlight,

annoyed by a kiss of wind,

holding on to the damp grass,

dead words overflowed from her eyes…

I see her driving the minivan

Gray, unwashed,

Her daughter in the front seat

Putting her hair up…

It was the perfect pilgrimage.

No daylight trudge through

Baltimore backstreets.

This was a late night

orgy of terror.

Here, for a transitory period, existence questioned sometimes,

I make you seen, an invisible pain killing me.

A carrier of a shapeless me,

silence, a soothing darkness, I weep hard.

I am watching

the pupils of your eyes

you are staring to the future

I watch the past

This city of aborted dreams takes on

a thick gray pallor as wind picks up.

Its drains plugged, gobs of sludge

will be forced through pipes to the sea…

I look out at my children, and how they play with their children.

I stare into the living room, completely frozen.

I haven't blinked for years and my eyes are like sandpaper…

If Armageddon

becomes something more

than an idea

I'll fly to Mars…