For Cesare Pavese
I watch you in the café
Hoping to catch your eye
But you look straight into the eyes
Of your friend opposite
Or out through the window at the sea
It would tell a better story than I
It shouldn’t be this way
You are supposed to see the love for you
In my eyes
My glances that don’t reach you but clatter
To the floor
Don’t even make it to your table or go
Unacknowledged
How can I imagine embraces and dare
To think more when you are looking away
Blue eyes snubbing me
Where is the fire; the magic I write about?
Magazines pay me to pen every week
Flood the page with Romance
As if between us a chasm or an abyss
Where we could unite
You are a master of facial expression
I’m sure you are an actress
Each beautiful expression of yours would fill
A gallery twice over
Dare I say I’m lonely
Afraid
Left abandoned at night
Unloved
In a room where the darkness like a tide covers
Me
I know you can drown without love
In silence
Snatching for hope in the looks you don’t return
Leaving me as still hearted as the sad man
4am
.
Malcolm Paul
Picture Nick Victor
.