POEM FOR SPRING 2021

 SACRAMENTO STREET

A flowered curtain

rests

in front of

the street-light.

It's midnight's

witness

to taxi-sounds

and smoldering

cigarettes.

In this quiet

we all

should be loved.

In this quiet

we all

should be friends.

You can count

the foot-steps

between the late-night

pavement

and the beginning

of the ocean,

between the vacant

street-corners

and the roughness

of the kiss

upon the stones,

between the cheap talk

of the alleys

and the lovers

beneath the sand.

(C) Paul Heidelberg