The True Love Café stood out. Though I had never been inside, it seemed to capture my attention. It was not particularly attractive on the outside, painted a deep shade of purple, with a giant heart scaling the front of its building. The inside, which I could only gather from looking through the windows, was just the same. Unattractive under dim lights (and probably more so amidst bright lights), chairs and tables could be seen in the presence of tall plants, sad looking palm leaves and house shrubbery. Not as appealing to the eye as one would think or hope for a place with “love” in its name. Only the outlines of figures could be seen, like shadows blurred in the background. A man behind a counter, a few people spread among eight or so tables, moving slowly, making their time last in beats. It seemed quiet to me, as though anyone on the inside could be sheltered from the city sounds, from the noises of streetcars rolling along the tracks, people trudging down sidewalks, bikes, cars, trucks, horns honking, dogs barking, hollering for apologies and yelling for the sake of yelling. It just seemed as though time stood still here, and that it stood quietly with a grin of contentment. I had never seen anyone enter the café, nor had I ever seen anyone exit. Yet whenever I passed by there were always people inside, perhaps just a coincidence of timing, or perhaps not. Though I admired the pace that seemed to be present among them, the folks inside always seemed quite unwell from where I stood. Why were they able to be so still, so present in their moment? Were they not flooded with the commotion on the outside? How could they not see or hear the masses that passed them by beyond the walls of the café? What content they must have. T. DM
Tag: poems
Selfish
Does it feel like punishment
when you keep your eyes wide
and withering
till the early morning?
though the dawn singes them closed
and adheres them to one another
you still put up a front
with seething, gloating
cornerstones of whatever you expect
to come around,
really, it should always feel like
punishment
when you keep your eyes wide
or when you submit them to shut out
the day like you have always done
how can you be so impossible?
T. DM
AUTUMN
In the autumn
When the cold air whips
Its breeze at my face,
I kiss the foreground
Lined with golden leaves,
The season is crisp
And I am content with
Every foggy breath,
The midday waxing moon,
And wood smoke rising from chimneys,
Though I am shivering
Beneath layers of wool
And thought.
T. DM
Yes Sir
Can seeing be all but a fortunate situation?
when most that is prosperous is devious,
is malevolent; is seething with crooked hands
directing the herd towards a roundabout
of do this, and that, and this:
a rather unfortunate burden
to view in plain sight,
a scenic of wound up, wired untouchables.
T. DM