Night Souls

Tonight on my leather couch alone

I watch the lights of the city

Push at the blackness

And I wonder about a night long ago,

Our first encounter, the spark of recognition

That pierced the veil of sight.

I remember how you entered the room,

Settled into the lumpy couch.

I watched from the overstuffed chair.

You smiled, offered a beginning question,

And the Id danced with joy and the recognition

Of the ancient. The night slipped away like time.

Tonight, a new deck of cards lay on my chrome and glass table,

Tightly wrapped in cellophane like my well-intentioned life,

Routines preserved into infinity, a time capsule

Of lesson unlearned.

I ponder the number of lives

It takes to find the path of joy. Instead I reach

For the telephone where a connection awaits me

And like the mirage of my life

The night slips away.