The man by the river (poem)

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(Photo by Farrel Noble)



Three a.m and the wind blows heavy across the night


I’ve been writing about a man I once was


A love story about a man I once knew


Who loved me years ago


In that city by a river





He was a good man


Deserving of so much better than I


But I was selfish and in pain


When I sang karaoke at ‘Somewhere


Bar and no Grill.’





I was a refugee – an Anne Frank


Hiding above in a little apartment


For the world below was frightful and filled with teeth


And by that point, i too had learned to bite





And some nights I would leave


My lovers bed and drive to that city on the river


Let myself in only to fall asleep on a mattress


On the floor


When I would wake in the morning


His head rested on the mattress


And he hugged himself


To keep off the chill


All in an effort to be close to me





I didn’t know it then


But that was what love looked like


And I didn’t know it then


But that was a safe house


And while I didn’t know it then


I knew a man loved me in his little apartment in the city by the river


And now that I know what love is


To him, I say thank you





You were my Memphis in that tiny little apartment in that city by the river