The Opposite of Stars


The line of people turned the street into a catwalk
A Gothic walkway clinging to the venue’s wall
Velvet and leather buzzing within the dark

That was where we met, waiting for the doors
Seven-thirty entry, lights up at eight
Nine for the headline

We left before the first encore
Black-clad singularities spilling into the night 
The opposite of stars

You were a statistic from the moment of our meeting
A possible end already coursing through your veins
An ambulance our taxi for the night

Namelessly you waited on a hospital floor
Sterile mockery of love; or lust, too early to tell
Apologizing to an omniscient nobody, pleading for your mother

The realization when questioned by a nurse
That I don’t know you at all
Your name as uncertain as the substance you’d taken

I stayed only a short while
Long enough to see them shoot you with Naloxone
A solution, perhaps. I did not wait to find out

I left you there, in that hospital
Walking away before my heart’s defences weakened
A blank angel of indifference

In uncertainty you’ve persisted
In memory, as in worry
An accuser of my own creation

There is a blank tombstone in my head 
Capping a black hole
Where the off-switch to your memory should be 


***
 

The Lost Harbour


The soft hour of the night
Reaching maturity
When the train station platform
Takes on a truer aspect
Dropping the mask of the day
Revealing the nothing underneath
A non-place for non-lives, victims and strays
The wordless music of the wind
A sleepless lullaby for all those gathered here
Some marooned by a last-train missed
Others by a lifetime of misses
Flotsam of the city one
Jetsam the other 
The morning will decide 
Who is to be salvaged


***