Midnight velvet blues

In the morning,
give me something dark and strong
pour me a black coffee song
tip my hat, shoulders square
aviators set against the glare
off to spar with trolls,
parse logic with ravens,
reason with stones.
Later, at shadow fall, I’ll make my up the creaking steps
step gingerly across the dry-rotted planks
press the bell, hat in hand, as the echoes toll
waiting under the creeping vine where shadows throng
Maybe today, you’ll deign answer
Maybe today, you’ll cast the secrets that you’ve gathered
show me what I long to hear.
No matter how many times I come,
ever as I stand to go
you’ll curse me for my inconstancy,
not staying ’til the end,
the dry and bitter end we all know is coming
even if we twirl gaily, madly,
mistaking the dizzy spin for progress.
I’ll try to laugh it all away,
but all you serve is gin and absinthe
until the room closes in
As I stand before the open door,
nothing but a darkness cut out of stars,
you’ll raise your hand to warn me.
I hear you every time,
your voice like wind sifting through the fields,
like the silence between the waves:
“Oh. Oh. Even our shadows leave us in the end.”

