This city is an abandoned house.
The paint has been peeling for quite some time and the roof has gone to hell.
I am not even sure if the door is attached to the framework at all
or just hanging there.
The couch is covered in dust and the pantry is filled with generic green beans and cereal boxes.
They must have had a dog. I see chew toys here and there.
The television has a chair sticking out of it.
That isn't a good sign.
How odd.
The bathroom is the cleanest looking room in the house.
The backyard seems lonely. I see a bike that wants a rider and a trampoline missing a spring.
I gotta get out of here. Try a different house.
I look down the road and see nothing but similar vacancies.
******.


It guess that's all in existence now.
Abandoned houses along an abandoned street.


hmmm...




Let's burn them down.

During a vow of silence
I heard for the first time
While standing
I learned why so many sit,complacent
Through attempts to break me
I learned to deflect
As I carried great burdens
I learned the value of friends
And waking each morning
reminds me to teach it

Crowds of weary people
shuffle from life to life

in the bellies of subways
claws of escalators

past booths of seven-dollar coffees
taking off shoes and jackets

as a voice in the roof says that
the flight to Mumbai,

or wherever, is now boarding.
All of it disappears

because--after these many years--
your face

(I shrug off
my backpack)

your voice
in my ears

Sigh.
This is hard.


My eyes are getting heavier with each passing day and the boy I see in the mirror
looks almost like a man.
Almost.

I am thankful for all the unkind words.
They made me strong and they made me carefree.
But when the lights go off and piano notes dance around my room the sheets feel lonely and my room feels cold.
When I close my eyes, my fingers are running along your cheek and my lips are brushing your nose.
You're not here.
I don't even know...

who
you
are.
But I hear myself whisper your name.

I know that somewhere in the universe, pieces of our souls flown through lonely tears and childhood wishes are are dancing with one another in the rain.
...kissing after dinner...
..making love after a fight...

I am so madly in love with you and I have no idea who you are.
Whether you even exist at all yet or whether I pass you every day.

I make no promise that I will caress your skin.
I make no promise that I will hear you laugh.
I make no promise that I will ever find you.


But I promise to always keep looking,
so keep your eyes open too...



With all my love whoever you are,

Joshua Haynes

When they said they maybe coming home
so many hearts implored
and as they celebrated
I was distracted by
All the balloons flying high in the sky