Old and Alone Through the City

Old and Alone Through the City

Old and alone, autumn wanders bare through the city,
A smoke of memories coiling around the streetlamps,
The woman dissolved into the arms of another mirage,
And the dog grew old begging for the warmth of days.

The child who was never born wanders through the fog,
A bodyless shadow knocking at autumn's gates,
And the wind and the sun, old brothers of a lifetime,
Lean on each other on the steps of forgetting.

The old organ-grinder, with his leg of wood and dream,
Cranks out a melody rusted like a wound,
The old prostitute sells her shadow, the unclosed
Coffin of her longing under a pagan moon.

Someone in a graveyard whispers a song of wax,
An old head trembles, hollow as a scorched bell tower,
The tree shakes its leaves like a final summer,
The idiot from the commercial smiles, a wounded mask.

The whole city trembles, full of loneliness,
Crowds of old young people flow like a river of wax,
All of them, everything, old and alone, carrying in their chests a fortress
Of silences fallen to their knees, under the same bitter snowfall.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2026

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Smith  Avatar
September 10, 2026 at 6:00 PM
A haunting, cinematic free-verse poem, rich with surreal images that make loneliness feel almost physical. The repeated “old and alone” becomes a sombre refrain, while wax, fog, wounds, shadows, and snowfall weave the city into a dreamlike landscape of loss and endurance.
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