Fading light

She is a thin girl

in a pale blue kimono

it hangs around her body like a fragrance

and covers nothing.

I sit in the dark looking at her

she smokes a pipe

and blows blue haze into the gently lit room.

A little man with a yellow shirt comes along and offers her a drink

and then drops snow over her

and she smiles,

laughs

as the ice melts onto her skin and forms drops

that run down her golden brown body.

Like diamonds, the water runs past her breasts.

 

The man looks up, he is sitting on a hard bench

the men around him are smoking

the pungent smell of tobacco and sweat

the growl of too many angry people

locked together in a hot room.

In the distance the soft sound of laughing comes

through the window.

There is the sound of women talking in the street below

All the men, at once

fall silent and listen

they all hear the happy voices, the gentle laughter and think

about things they did years ago, far away.