Shadow Pugilist


you will never know 
how i let you slip through my.......
maybe it will come to blows
there's nothing to understand.

all the time you drift along 
too high, too afraid to come down
shadow riding, you fall
the elongated light makes you topple down

the transistor radio
a makeshift bookshelf
a photograph of a girl buried in sand
up to the neck, wearing sunglasses,
smiling
you whisk yourself away in a cab down broadway

the cab went round a corner
each step from the kerb 
unmeasurable by a sextant
the face of a constellation
connecting the dots with lines 
to make your memory 

all the time you drift along 
too high, too afraid to come down
shadow riding, you fall
the elongated light makes you topple down