Casual Encounter - For Marius Poem by Charl JF Cilliers

I wandered down an alleyway
and reached a street corner where
he sat in the ashes of a smouldering day,
cradling his guitar.

On a rickety packing case
he lounged against the sooty air,
a smile of greeting on his upturned face,
as if he knew that someone would appear

out of the gathering dusk. As I drew near
his fingers kept searching for a tune
that seemed to have got lost somewhere
in the shadows of late afternoon.

Then, like someone deep in prayer,
he played for himself and for the stranger there,
drawing notes from darkness of despair,
it seemed, for the brotherhood of all men everywhere.