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The City

This day slips away
into darkness it falls
the back streets are my home
on the edges at the boundaries

I sit drinking coffee
wondering about other days;
this city has taught me
we are all fools in its grand masquerade;

Each street is marked out in shadows
no one sleeps, the darkness lingers
savage and silent
waiting, waiting...

In blue balance the darkness gathers
as evening crowds and shrouds this place.
Street lights dim and white
keep the darkness firmly in check;
while a neon cross flashes a bill board salvation.

In this mechanical clock work
each day falls away;
the darkness gathers,
dark blue turns to black.
While in the back street shadows chase the light
wishing to consume it;
In the shadows they linger chasing.

Here we are shadows scotched by the light that casts us into darkness;
shadows we linger on this thin line;
empty figments of the imagination we are but shadows;
shadows cast by the light;

In the back streets shifting shadows change
and in a moment fade
in this mad dash into night.

This city has taught me to dream;
it changes, it fades and then it lives again with the day.
Everything must change in this dusty masquerade
and if we are to live as we should
we change with it as we fade into the night.

- John Najjar

(featured in the poetry forum 11.30.11)

editor's note: Now the butterfly dreams he is a man, exchanging nectar for coffee; brightly colored wings for transitory shadows. Quickly, lay those eggs before you die! - mh

This is not a Love Poem.

I remember delicate embraces;
how I held you in my arms,
hoping you may learn to trust me;
how tenderness is mixed with pain.

I remember secrets exchanged
as we laid in bed;
your gentle strokes upon my forehead;
shared laughter; your shimmering eyes.

I remember your silky hair
against the white pillow;
how in soft candle-light
amongst gentle murmurs
for one brief moment eternity was touched.

This is not a love poem,
it is just a backward glance
at how for a time there was no time
only those cheating intimacies
that finally betrayed us.

- John Najjar

(added 11.30.11)

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