Prayer (to a long-lost friend)

Triptych (Three Days of Rain). Nov. 21, 2013.

Long after the greetings and leave-takings

Of who knows how many faces,

And long after the fumes of strangers’

Cigarettes fade and fade with the foam

Of last sips and long warm walks,

Long after the days when there was still

Glamor in gloom, to the days when all commotion

Has finally cooled,

There will come a night — perhaps — 

When you lay awake neath an open window,

Beside the rattle of spilling gutters,

When the smell of rain will deliver to you

The soul of it all — 

Will weave into the body, 

Will lower you down — 

And at that moment, reach back.

Reach back,

For there, in the light of sleep 

And half-sleep,

I will be.