It’s just before dark and
A fast gulp of hot chocolate burns my throat.
I turn up my jacket collar
and tamp down the cravings
of an unnecessary fix
of a life past.
I have no eye for the now.
I need to press
my cold hands against warm skin
and I give a man a heated look, but
the warm blooded stranger
thinks I’m eyeing his Bluetooth
and trades me an icy scowl.
I slide into the heavy
foot-traffic,
walking as if
I have somewhere
to go
and nearly trip
on a homeless man
who is missing a leg.
I offer up the pastry I bought,
Smiling
Because he could have been my brother
Some life long gone.
-Angelica Thumm
(influenced by “Last Tango in Fresno” by Luis Omar Salinas)
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