Cleveland
the city is closing for the night
stores draw their blinds one by one
every street is dark save for the dim
Downtown streetlights bending at the neck
like weighted stems of steel. Rockefellers
and Carnegie have built the city in layers:
clinics, factories, the rounded arch hotels
what is not there than fortune? Further Downtown
has changed with neon lights flashing from
4th Street Bar and Grill on The Corner Alley where
they serve stylish late dinner at night so before you leave
Downtown have a day at West Side Market, howl at the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, visit houses turned galleries
and other places that make Cleveland a great City
of course, the great Lake and Tri-C welcomes
you to adventure and a brighter future beyond pine trees
yet, drifting along silent paths alone is a soul walking
to a desolate corner of the city where alone with the family
their souls swirl like clouds of birds vanishing into the sky
and soon will fade like a smoke into thin air
pacing down the road rolling silently through the frost
in the dark after the nightshift is this soul with his head in his palms
the neon lights of Downtown ended where his air smells of salt
and his lover’s body was once found in the cold snow
it’s his third job of the day but you can’t find eggs on his dinner table
in Cleveland there are many young beech-trees on the edge
trembling to stand still beneath their pale skies and they shudder
like leaves in the light air afraid of the star beyond their reach
and my heart fills slowly with tears that will never dry
Copyright © Padmore Agbemabiese | Year Posted 2013
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