Nocturne

It’s possible you can see someone from

A distance, after all these years, and stop in your

Tracks or do a double take and wonder if maybe

It’s just someone who looks like someone

You used to know or if it’s the real person and

Then you walk on by like in the song “Walk

On By” and then you turn turn again but the person’s

Gone and all you can do is haul yourself

Up to the roof and jump off or shoot yourself

In the foot so that you can’t walk can’t move

And time hangs heavy as you sit in your room

And wonder if that person was him or you

Or someone’s twin who arrived from another

Planet to savor the lilac scent that radiates

From your skin

And the heat comes up from the pipes like Les

Trois Gymnopédies by Erik Satie and I turn the key

Without biting my tongue and the heart comes

Back on until it bleeds and I take back with one

Hand what I gave with the other and someone

Comes in off the street no longer invisible

And the kissing booth closes for the night—too

Bad for you—and I display my dishrag abs to

The wind one last time, feel my skin on fire

As I descend