night porter

I was walking by in the rain
when I saw you,
back from another night of
risks and failed intention.

You stood in that marbled cavern,
still uniformed
in the hours most refused to wear,

your attention full like the moon

for the footsteps
of a rare visitor to your hall.

I felt it with you,
that thrill of the expected arrival,
the practiced movements waiting beneath your skin

for the moment of their unveiling.

It is an energy more vivid
than the storm which soaked me
as I passed by
in a ragged uniform of my own.

pebbles

we spoke of risk
in our carefully dramatic voices
and we found it all through the evening

in cards stuck to tables
or ricocheted plastic

or the chance connection of knees

but with the rain
and the many steps home;
blind from the rivers on my face

I knew that taking one step
could not be so hard