half-light

Waiting under the half-light of flickering street lamps where shadows twist whispers beneath the weight of damp air the city breathes in muted sighs a symphony of distant sirens the steady thrum of footsteps that never pauses for a second glance. Glass towers loom like sentinels their mirrored skin reflecting dreams that scatter like autumn leaves in a wind that knows no direction each face blurred into anonymity eyes turned to screens lost in a rhythm only they can hear. I stand wrapped in a cocoon of silence a lone note in a crowded song watching couples trace the curve of the sidewalk their laughter mingling the ghosts of my thoughts each smiles a stab of neon light against the dusk where heartbeats echo in empty spaces the taste of solitude thickens like fog. Puddles gather stories fragments of conversation slip through drifting on the surface bobbing like paper balloons waiting for a tide that never comes each ripple a reminder, connection the truth, the pulse of the crowd I am an island, a silhouette against the chaos holding tight to the frayed edges memory I can’t quite touch. Beneath the bridge a river swallows its secrets I stand here anchored the weight of my thoughts gazing into the half-light hope flickers like a faulty bulb the city, in all its grandeur remains just out of reach a beautiful, cruel illusion I am but a whisper lost in the roar of everything Nothing at all at once!