A Hopeful Breath

This is a street I could fall in love on

Where everyone’s eyes reflect the stringed lights

Cobbles hold the weight of it all

The hearts and the hopes of what could and might

 

She stands there in her red peacoat

Bright scarlet lips and a kind, gentle smile

Laughing and flushed as I dote

Reciting poetics – the world stands still for awhile

 

Hundreds of other pass by, unaware

That they don’t exist, if only for the sake

Of leaving the world for the fine and the fair

For those who dream although awake

 

Chimney smoke romanticized

Twisting wisps of blue-ish gray

All the same, dreams idolized

Come from another thought’s decay

 

What is real, and who is to say

These words are untrue and this will never be

These words are no less than the prayers that I pray

As the one that I love refuses me

 

Before my eyes, a phantom-like breath

Escapes my lips to fog my glasses

It was the only real thing in my chest

Am I but a breath to each stranger who passes

 

This is a street I could fall in love on

Where everyone’s eyes reflect the stringed lights

Cobbles hold the weight of it all

The hearts and the hopes of all that could and might