Alone Again

City's almost quiet hour
awaits lone wanderer's entrance
thespian remorse moving
down concrete steps from stage door exit
through heavy fog escort
across gum-blotched pavement
where cigarette butts and fast food wrappers cling
finding the misty Great White Way

Always at the ready
Broadway signs of joy
glittering false hope
vying for center stage
Time Square's perpetual opening night
like no other

Above muted rail sounds
body-less street crossings beckon
framed overhead by millions of watts
a metropolis of man-made stars
sparking delusional bribery
even for a vacuous 2:00 AM

At subway's entrance
melancholy echoes upward
from underground platforms
Miles-like blues whispering trampled hope
drifting across collapsed sleepers
crashed believers
staggering deceivers
embracing Escher's upside-down landscape
surreal longings for the rapture
freedom
disappearance of pain

Down the stairs of dank air
white tiled walls defiled with spray can and marker
tunnel winds that forever reek death
rats
roaches
things once alive
now but centuries-old remnants
of what was
what still is
late night's weigh station of despair

At platform's edge
trumpeter leans against pillar
an instrument's bellow
pushing sounds of guttural wail
laments for all who've past
for all who will pass

Upon the Bard's world
lone wanderer makes entrance
the stage of process
where all the men and women
are merely actors

Express Train speeds through station

A blur of the wanderer's final jeté

Passing windows stretch reality's sordid morning
red and yellow lights disappear
the tunnel is darkness once more

Silence

Trumpet man alone again