Where I Was

I was arriving home one night The smell of smoke clinging to my shirt The laughs at the café humming around my ears The sky above, a homely grey I looked up at the sky, something I should do more often But my gaze kept climbing and straining Picks in hand, over and over, almost draining Held back by a concrete behemoth On all three sides of my limited vision All I saw was wall My claustrophobic heart scrambled away from these encroaching giants I forced my eyes against the dread, they whimpered, I felt the same Up, and up, rolling up, gravity cringed, still I looked And all I saw was wall All kinds of painted wall Red, orange, brown Grey Grey skies Magnetic flesh, my eyes guzzling in the grayness, like starved infants at their mothers breast My heart slowed, the hum of the café carried away in the breeze Echo of laughter Grey skies Then and there I happened upon a realization I was as far away from Earth as I could ever be standing there on that artificial blanket of tar The funny thing about assumptions you see Is that they seem so right The feeling of discovery, some coveted grand mystery Then that dreadful moment of enlightenment, the proclamation of self doubt The moment that some unnamed flock of white bird Charges through my faulty reasoning Streaking across Grey skies And just at that very same moment, squinting Drinking in the white mass of life fleeing my stare On that dark, humid night The echo of laughter still in the air, clinging to my shirt, muddled in smoke Choking my sense of belonging, I knew exactly Where I was © Samir Georges 2009