The metal on the sewer grate
tucked half obscured
by fallen, cracked, overhang of cement..
damp, flattened leaves, pressed by the moisture
recently collected from the winter's rain…
obscure and barely seen a tiny glint of mirrored sunlight…
there…
perhaps a piece of glass or metal
balanced on the edge of falling to the dark abyss
it draws attention
calls one to a bending over…
something heard , a stirring in the shadows ….
hmm some words spoke softly…
maybe just the sigh of water
flushing all the unseen waste from endless passages of humanity …
there it is again
a whisper barely heard in all the din
of fast paced footsteps passing by to destinies secured
….to hear involved the use of gestures on the knees…
to hear …
to lean…
to see if what one might suspect is really there.
for all the midday light and all the endless crowds of people passing by
the first words threw me back as if a gust of wind
blew
from the very depths of hell
as someone sighed
“I died today.”
…leaning closer still to find the source of such imagined sound…
in breathy tones it spoke again…
"I died today ….
although there are no entrance wounds
or marks to say ”touch here and see”
…someone passed this drama
threw a coin down toward the grate
as if to make a wish
or was it meant for me as I bent like a beggar in the street
……..the darkest eyes moved slightly there…
between the grates…
within the darkest dark
appearing slow
to lift and look up
to the skies past all the mountains of cement
and masses of the fall…
.past layers of the earths aurora
searching for a personal savior….