I search the streets in darkness for my friend
The one who met me in a dream
We gave our names in a handshake of agreement
A promising future ensured
When I broke from the group I saw my friend in shadows
Silent and cloaked
A soul apart
We began to share freely
The warmth of light glowed between us
The cloak fell away
My friend’s countenance changed
We saw each other clearly
Our hopes and fears laid bare
Now in the thick of night I wander the streets
Observing signs and patterns
Looking for my friend
But signs and patterns, I have learned, are often illusion
Dreams, I must admit, are so very much too
What nook of this vast city harbors my friend?
Our paths did not cross at the evening play,
Nor the midnight show with a dozen dozing spectators
A card on the ground shows seven diamonds
A sign of success?
A reminder for patience?
The meaning for my soul is unclear
Yet meaning does not exist, my mind tells me
As a drunk girl crouches and pisses on the path ahead
Are we not all animals wallowing in chaos?
Two young men dash up the street as if in a play
Acting out a fight for my amusement
“Help!” one cries in my direction, the other throwing mock punches
They laugh and whisper as I shuffle past, ignoring the spectacle
Now a man in a thong bikini dances wildly in the street
I walk past silently, too bemused for judgment
My presence startles him
“You scared me,” the man tells me
“How is that?” I ask
“I didn’t know I had an audience.”
My coffee high wanes
I wander to the river
The sun rises early but light is obscured by haze
Clarity eludes
I sit beneath a tree and watch old men cast poles into the water
The night, I reflect, has been a short, strange dream
But my friend has yet to find me
I close my eyes and wonder
Must I wander the streets alone again?
So many years I stumbled in nights of silence
Through empty towns and hostile country
Terrain far more menacing than here
Here in darkness a play unfolds around me
A character at every corner
A story on each block
Here, I realize, the night is my friend.