for a stranger.

you have a life and a poem to share with me

yet i see you draped in your gauzy loneliness

too

stubborn, perhaps scared of the strings

attached to my threadbare solitude

i conform to wearing my own grief alone

too

but still hope you would see through me

i tell you, as nameless as i seem to you

you know more than my mother’s maiden name

as faceless as we may seem to each other

i’ve seen your wrinkles of unwelcome experiences in my own reflection

and i know you’ve noticed mine

although you have not uttered a word

i have hummed to your blues before

and often felt your throbbing energy in the stillness of my midnight hour

our souls pulsate to our evocative memories

parallel, but separate

pregnant, born spiritual

so how about you remove your fashionable cloak of mind-your-own

and i

too

will change into something naked

i promise you warmth in the fabric of my familiar shadow

you will tell me about your first love

and i will tell you about my Mother

we will taste freedom singing the blues we’ve left unsung

i have a life and love and poem to share with you

too.