Milwaukee Street

Milwaukee Street

By: C. Hemphill

I’ve traveled down your road

Eyes closed

Hands tied behind my back.

Always you called to me

Like the naked moon that we laid under

Pulling dreams from my slumber,

You laid them at your doorstep.

Dust settled on them

Like my kisses that stained your skin.

At night I watched the rain caress your window,

Watched the world melt away

And you melt into me

And I melt into nothing.

I’ve scratched your back a thousand times

Grasping for something that was never there,

Waiting for your skin to bleed

To prove that you were human too.

In the glow of the sun that eavesdropped

Through the cracks of your blinds,

The still of the moment blotted all regret,

Smoothed it away like your hair

That my fingers took care of so well.

You were mine, if only for that time.

And down from Heaven I’d fall,

And crash into reality

And crash into you.

I saw myself in a world turned upside down

In the drops of water

That fell from your faucet.

And in a moment it was all washed away.

As I tiptoe on the creaking floor,

Smell the gas as natural as we seem to be

I can’t seem to get outside of you,

Or me, though it’s as clear as the writing on my face.

Though I’ve dragged my feet through your pavement,

Though I’ve laid my head on your heart,

I never loved you.