By: Alex Wright
This landscape has lost its luster
Conversation let the dinner get cold
Re-telling stories of Ward days that make us realize
The way time has watched us grow old
Only to find us younger in photos
Draped in that Indian Summer
So sweet
Singing songs that poured out of the windows
Inviting our neighbors to dance in the street
Raise my glass
To the past
Respect the dead
Toss it back
Let the taste of my twenties slip down my throat
One last laugh and smile
Before miles line up in single file
Bringing this lengthy chapter to its close
The roads all drown in darkness
The side streets gasp for air
Raise their heads above the waves
To slur their names and sink back down
Porch lights faded by distant night
Tired fires flicker,
“Come home”
Left burning by a familiar face
Forced to pace the roads alone
With just the taste and weight
Of “love” wrapped in a foreign phrase
Sounding far more familiar when it drips off your tongue
Like a tune that I heard at 8 or 9
But not since then had I heard hummed
Not since then had I felt young
ALEX WRIGHT CONTAINS MULTITUDES 