So subtle were
My thoughts of you
That I wonder how
You never knew

.
Vibrations loosen
the dust on my piano,
releasing tiny particles
into a rectangle sunbeam
dancing about the glass,
while I play sad love songs
on freeform keys,
fingered imagination
frantically moving
levers in never before
heard melodies
with a locked
sustain pedal
holding each note
to gradually
evanesce
into silence,
as the dust
once again
settles

The street Yes teaches the soul
To lose all hope and fight
With standard flesh in parallel
Reflection of drowning realities.
The street Yes teaches the heart
To break and gratefully piece itself
Back together like broken sidewalks
Uninterrupted in the geology
Of parallel violence.

The street does not teach tenderness
To rise with renewed passion;
A Phoenix phenomena pounding
The chest and crushing the solitude.
The street does not teach
How to cope with happiness
Or the success where none was before,
The street always educated,
Heavily, for its burden.

With a new honesty,
  I began to write

As the fog was cleared,
  liberating my sight

From lies and confusion,
  the wrongs became right

My days now lengthened,
—turning darkness to light

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2016)