Relent

The veins of the city

a hundred thousand graves

a million closed doors

Pandora’s box hidden

beyond the forbidden lock.

-

Reach out for support again

but they have nothing to offer,

their safety bubble popped

so long ago.

-

They close their doors, too,

and leave you fighting with the elements

the cold set upon the anxious, sweating brow

the tired body worn down that little bit more.

-

Neon lights flash vivid shadows like

oil spills across the pavements

the hospital nearby holds infinite ghosts,

the bodies still emerging

the promise of change revealed to be a smokescreen —

lost the last of the pills —

the promise of life turned out to be deception

lost at the wake, detached,

sitting alone in the reception

my tie loose, now, swaying by my waist

-

music blasts from a passing car

an infectious disease, their Hyena-like laughter

-

I isolate myself in response,

the room full of water

I turn the heat down and let it flow

-

let the waves build up

and hold me down.

-

The city smiles as I breathe out a final time

the bird on the windowsill

croaks like nothing happened.

-

It goes on regardless, an unchanged expression

the unchanging sea

well, it certainly altered me.

-

Lost in the cold

searching for those old

and familiar feelings again

the world passing by,

in its comfortable noise,

it never stops to pause,

it never relents.