Let’s Not Fall in Love

It was only 8pm, but the darkness fell early those days.

We thought it was midnight and acted in kind.

We skirted the shadows thrown by warm ribbons of streetlight.

We breathed, shallow, short,

and hid in a corner,

sharing each other,

dazed.

It was after 3 when you finally left to walk alone down those streets;

Dodging drunks, trash and beer bottles floating in the puddles.

You stumbled ever so slightly.

Adjusting your collar, you looked ahead until out of sight.

I was left staring at my open palms that still smelled of you.

Empty, dry, their blood glow burning,

crisscrossed by the same streetlights and shadows

we danced across.