Lovely Women Walking

They distract me from and remind me of my aloneness
Gifted a glance of lovely eyes or even a smile as sweet cream for his coffee
An intimacy only to die that slow death with every footfall
Until another ageless sister arrives once again
And ignites my hopeful candle as the breeze builds

It’s a day or evening as all the others on this path
A rich and lonely road cobbled with dreams and nightmares past
My cheap cigar burns uneven as the loves of our lives
The smoke’s interest swirls, the ash abandoned and falling

Not a deep soul, do I exist at all after the smile and footfalls fade
I see beautiful purpose in their stride even as I cannot know it
Coveted in my loneliness I can hold them intimately in thought
They may have seen my joy in their beauty, my longing
Later, they might find me again in their commentary with friends about their stroll

Forever I owe them that sacred stranger’s debt
Those lovely eyes,” Good Morning or Evening!” a smile and then polite release.
I have loved them all faithfully forever in these moments
With the abundance of attractions, for me it is always the eyes
They lift and haunt me in their wake and in my dreams
Until we never meet again, I will not speak of their moving beauty
Yet another footfall, an ash and aloneness prevails
In joy, at beauty walking past