Smiling into the Darkness of a Winter’s Night
Cold outside
sipping at a brandy slow,
the heater on full.
Reading a book at 10:25
in the p.m.
The telephone rings,
the nurse with the serotonin laugh,
who was a baby
when I graduated high school,
tells me breathlessly
she’s finishing up her shift,
she misses me,
it’s going to snow, maybe…
She has a cake for me and
she’s coming over.
I put down the phone
go back to my chair and
my brandy and my book thinking
can a night
be any better than this?
And hell, maybe it is true
when the universe
locks a door on you
it always leaves a window open
so you can climb onto the fire escape,
drink and cigar in hand,
look out over the city skyline,
the stars and the lights
illuminating everything like a picture from a book
you read as a child on a summer’s golden afternoon
when you were immortal and
full of so much piss and vinegar.
