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