She was twenty nine
energetic, ambitious and unmarried
they said she had the zeal
to learn, to live, to convince...
she could have been a big shot
and it wouldn’t have taken long;
she had that fire within
but it was the fire without
that she failed to sustain.
just in her vicinity
there was a young guy
gazing at the parking lot
and wishing he'd one day
have one of those sedans for his own.
it was said that when he spoke
others were compelled to shut up and listen
today fate exchanged roles with him
and he blended along his dreams so well
that it became impossible
to discriminate between the two
not very far from them
was this old man with a khaki cap
not much was known about him;
for no one ever tried to.
more than half his life he
parked everyone else's cars
and cycled back home.
i had an encounter with him once
when i had asked him for a light
after groping my pockets in futile
with an unburned fag between my lips.
but it turned out that he didn't smoke
and i wish he never made an exception
a mute onlooker
from a few yards away
that day i saw the earth
whittle into an inferno
with the resonance of thunder
stolen from the unsuspecting clouds
and i drove off immediately
hoping that it had nothing to do
with the cigarette end
i forgot to stub out!
