I Walk These Streets

I walk these streets

Day after day and year after year

Past the avenue houses

Where the neighbors wave

And onto the boulevard

As people come and go

Into the shops and salons

And restaurants and bars

Unaware that I am watching them

Talking on their phones

While searching for their car keys

I walk these streets at sundown

After the dreams of the morning have started to fade

While traffic whisks past in an endless loop

In a tired race to get home first

I sink into my collar as a chill closes in

And bury my hands into my coat

Under a rainbow of darkening hues

I bear witness to the dying of the light

I walk these streets

Alone at night while everybody sleeps

And the only sound I hear

Is the scraping of my shoes

And the humming of the lamp post

As the staccato of flashing yellow lights

Urge caution to a vacant landscape

Where tomcats prowl in the hidden shadows

And tree limbs sway with a muffled groan

Things are never where you left them last

They can't be found

No matter how thorough the search

Our regrets are carved into the mountainside

While elation trips and stumbles and falls

The world is wet and awash in grey

A somber mood settles in around me

I must be quite a sight to see.

As defiantly, I walk these streets.