A bend in the haze

Sifting through the residue of redemption
hoping to find a few coins to get another
can of Tecate before closing time

Neon wrapped in a gauze of seamist
the pretense & conceit
better left for those who can afford it

Silence reverts to
              justification even though it’s
true I may no longer cast a shadow
if I ever did
                              a random act at best

I can only return to the wavy depths that
I never left in the first place
              & the compulsive imperfections
I have stubbornly
                              adhered to all these years

while those I used to know
              & whose company I carried
concede the rhyme
                              in some other world
                                                too far from mine

with words I might have heard
some other time