Adrift Poem by Elizabeth Jones

The city burns down around my footsteps
Consumed by the fires of inattention
Discarded and forgotten
Like a gentle whisper upon a breeze
Fluttering away like the cold ash of the morning after

I pass through this place
Walking, hoping
Dreaming
A lost soul drifting on currents of concrete and glass
Rudderless, amid the focused and determined

Misplaced in a waking world of silent dreams
Submerged in an abrasive torrent of sharp glances
From instantly forgotten strangers
Struggling in a river of rough, chaotic disorder
Bleak, brisk and raw

Things seem to change yet remain the same
The certain reality of inevitability
Lulls the weary into a languor
A clawing weight on the hopes and dreams
Of the lonely, still searching

I smile, I laugh, I dance, I f**k
But you are always there
The dream of you is there
A dull spark in the cold dark recesses
Buried on the edge of conscious thought

I imagine us meeting on a crowded street
The bustling background fading to insignificance
A blanket of blur and muffled sounds
Wrapped around just the two of us
A protective shroud of sensuous promise

We embrace and fall into arms of impatient longing
Oblivious to the foreshadow of a summer downpour
Eager and waiting
A delicate flurry ripples a fine mist of precipitation
As swaths of molten gold undulate around us in the humid air

Glowing in the rich apricot light from the setting sun
The droplets are set aflame
Dazzling sparkles, like burning snow flakes
We are surrounded and devoured by a shimmering mass of
Amber and vermilion

Our lips collide in a hot press of soft, wanting flesh
As cold fingers desperately clamber to hold on
For fear of a welcome dream, ready to capsize
Plunged into the inky chill of truth
Sinking into shadows and solitude

With all the love I have bottled up
The glass cracks and breaks under the strain
A thousand tiny shards of glistening reality
Sinking into the turmoil of restless hopes and dreams
Can you save me, or am I adrift?