I waited for you.

Sat in the same place

drinking,

until you would find me.

Lost all my discretion

in the moment.

 

Tried to fade away

into a maudlin landscape.

The weight of such

tepid water baptisms

drown me,

like a lost sailor.

 

You my unenchanting one;

absent from my gaze

and I

chose to recede.

Bread and cheese

pair well

with utter hopelessness.

 

No finer vintage

than the despair of man

in June.

Flowers bloom,

mocking me

as I wither

trying to consume

my way to you.

 

Pitiful,

as a ghost

that never loved.

Haunting an empty space

without a touchstone.

 

I imagine

you walking in

and I smile,

but it is an illusion.

Bitter wine and cigarettes.

Each day passes

and I do not.

 

Slowly,

my shadow is getting dimmer.

Am I

just a shade

of your memory?

 

 

HG – 2021