I’m sitting on the deck
chain smoking
thinking about how I hated you then
and that’s what got me through
the tall black buildings in the homeless night
were mountains of you I climbed
and what do I do now
with all this bitterness on the end of my cigarette
perhaps I’ll put the city ablaze
or return to it
where I had nowhere to go
tempted to leave you there too
no, I’ll go and sit hunched over by the shelter
and just feel bad
with this pitiful poem
I’ll feel bad for you for me
for all of us
and I’ll think of
the rags of my borrowed clothes
me wearing them up and down the streets
like a candle
that could have easily been
extinguished
but somehow kept glowing
in the light of God
who I lay all of this down to
with no love or respect
just peaceful resignation and heart
finally ready to forgive
at a wishing well full of tears
