flaming jewels

night sounds

i like to walk on these early
summer nights by myself
stroll in my swift way on past
house after house after
house
looking in where i can with no
shame
because i like to glimpse
the curtains blowing or the blurry blue hand
reaching to
shut
out
the night

the peering is nice
but really its the sounds that
pull me closer
i like to pause sometimes
(under a lilac bush is best)
and

listen

to oh just everything like
silverware scraping on plates
the fragile clink of ice in glasses
the hum of running water and children
arguing over who's turn is it to wash
or dry or hey it's YOUR turn to clear!
sometimes it's the soft murmur of adult voices
or the pop//fizz of a beer can opening
the muted racket of a tv or
radio
sometimes i hear soft
crying from an upstairs window and i know
it's a gurl
weeping for those untenable//unnameable hurts
for which there is no balm
not even summer nights

(and what i feel for her
& for all of them
i do not speak
nor whisper
not even
to the lilac)

my medicine for melancholy is to walk
and

listen

in
perfect
solitude
&silence.

jewel@gleeful.com
a seraph production