Friendship and a Comet

Warmth, and numbing stillness in the air
Abounded that day,
When through the trees sprang dried sun-drops.
And you and I went out upon that day,
And split the hazy heat that bounded off the streets
To talk of this and that,
And while away the time, alone, together.

As day passed on, with firm omnipotence,
Through hard-fought afternoon
And up-stairs walks
To sun-pressed windows, and chilly chairs,
And empty coffee-pots, and chatting stares,
My eyes grew grim and tired,
And all that is was all that used to be,
And will then be again –
The unnerving stare of baking sun,
The coolness of the chairs.

And dinner-time came and went in step
To some slow waltz, it seemed
At least now looking back at that daily habit
As we sipped our time-trained speech
With open ears.
Then talks about some present past,
As if some toy was needed to be fixed
With glue, and re-embellished just one more time
Before set back upon the shelf,
For at least a little more time.

And then, in broke-down pews,
Where truth is transferred from view to view,
We were again at odds,
With organ music playing, nodding heads swaying
To the choir chant.
Then out, out into that dusty dark
Where raining thoughts beat heavy on my brain
And conversation topics seemed as if
They would never come.
Truth be told, a sad slow walk was eagerly apparent.
And warm-aired night was blasting to the bone,
As out I walked again with you, alone,
And spent some time in the miasmal atmosphere.

Finally, some drawn-out talk
Began to eat the soul in me
As four o’ clock was drifting in
And ticking tocks resounded in my bones.
How funny – the air inside was shocking when
We left the room.
And lying out, with that warm-aired sucking starlight
Blanketing my bones –
No flit of june-bug uglies in the space between those eyes and mine –
A sudden flash! And all eyes drew at once to that descending death,
That glorious death.
Some words were interchanged, but lonely thoughts are not to say,
But to huddle close together with,
And feed with silent hours’ flames.

Well, back we quickly walked, and parted ways,
Ways that cross like latitudes and longitudes
To meet and part again;
But still, I know I see before my eyes
The monologue of stars,
The endlessness of space and the quickly dying night.