ANOTHER FOOL

yeah sure the night arrives sooner and in the early evening it's already headlights of passing cars and street lamp's orange glows

but late at night the christmas lights embrace pine trees which decorate front lawns producing an artificial rainbow morning while the children sleep in their beds

outside on the steps of my parents house in slippers wrapped in a blanket with cold toes i make a wreck of my cigarette and exhale the smoke into a chill winter air

this early in the morning and i'm surprised to hear the song of birds whose names i don't know staying warm near the chimney

out in the dark distance there's a tall human figure, scarf blowing in the wind, top hat barely staying on, smoking a pipe

his god dreams of snow days while snuggled in a tiny twin bed

his god wears star wars pajamas

and fears his grandma

and santa claus

his god has already forgotten about him, comforted in the knowledge that if and when it ends there will be always be another winter, a chance for another

when the sun returns, later on, the man in the distance will dissolve apparent and quick

he'll melt under the heat of it all,

he'll become a puddle, become all water, and
i'll be the only witness,

i am the only witness.