I can see how you look at me. I know what you think I know exactly your words I know what you're going to say You'll look and you'll judge Easy to pigeonhole It'll make me feel better If I can make him lesser You don't know anything about me Don't pretend Dead-eyed, I look at you Expression neutral, defend The saga continued The return commenced in the bar, a sidelong glance in the street, no chance I was home, I was there I looked down the street and the old familiar sights weren't familiar at all. I could see them sizing me up "who's he? what's his game?" Assume they did What I was up to. I said I was up to nothing I walked around, eyes neutral it had all changed. And yet, none of it was new. Assume I'm some hustler, studying the landscape. Assume I'm some john, ready to pay five minutes of satisfaction against a backdrop of shame Keep telling yourself who you think I am Or am I a street urchin, shaking off the rain? No, but thanks for playing without pain. Still unsure of who I am? Go ahead, in your mind, make me who I'm not. It doesn't bother me. Much. I sat there, pensive, studying the buildings for any sign of life. It never happened, never blinked. De olde days is gone, mon. I was happy to return and I cut the strings you forgot who I was not that's okay, so did I. Happy to get back to the place where I once lived. but still unknown this time, I choose that fate. Everything must change. Even when it's not supposed to.
Reason for writing:
I thought of a poem not unlike this during my last visit to Chicago at the beginning of September. I had been gone so long that almost all of the faces were new to me, and I saw none of my friends, and things that were landmarks to me during my last few years there were gone.
Birth sign: Aries
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