A Feast of Fiends

I walk to escape the feeling
that lay beside me at dawn.
My footfall laughing back from
shop windows and tenements,
they pity me, know the truth
that met me with sunrise.
Involuntary steps beg a denial
but can’t scale the barriers.

Coffee dregs congeal in a coffee cup.
Through steamy perspex watched people talk.
A girl stoops to light a cigarette, strange
I never noticed the fear on their faces
–until now,
Never heard the desperation in their talk
–until now.

A hand of grass claws its way
through the ash of a park path,
its isolation oppresses me.

Truth lies beside you at dawn
as sun filters through the
blinds over the hair of a girl
you once thought you knew.