On Common Ground

Down where the train cars rattle the dirt
He walks kicking rocks up to scatter the hurt
He feels like the houses down by the tracks
Shattered foundation—
showing slipshod construction through all of his cracks

Tonight all the stars are snuffed out by the moon
He’s thinking of dreams he has had,
and why he has abandoned them so soon…

…Lost in the circles of her mind,
She confuses love and people being kind
and it holds her in the loneliest of moments
but it drags her down in her dreams

Tonight the sleep doesn’t come
She mounts her fire escape and works down the rungs
And finds herself in a playground—she’s climbing the trees
She is invisible to everything she sees…

…He was thinking of hiding tonight
But he caught a glimpse of the sodium light
Outside his window, blurring the pane.

Across the street is a playground, he goes there sometimes
When it’s late—once again he is small…
And he talks through his troubles
To the ghosts of his family
Or himself… or to no one at all…

…She is seated in the trees
And she hears someone talking in faint soliloquies
And she hears him in silence
She listens until he has gone.

Then she slips slowly back to her window
She feels some connection in stealing this moment—
Softens her sorrows, she’s now sleeping soundly
Sailing into the dawn…

Copyright Tracy S. Feldman, All rights reserved