Ode on a Stranger

Oh sir! I look upon you from afar
And with that gaze attempt to find your place
Amongst those others that have crossed this way.
But as I look, I wonder too
What secrets hold, you within you.
Behind that blank face that doth stare
Into the shadows you find there.
What causes you such delay
As you look off into that distant space?
Ho! Sir! Why must you debar?

But as you continue about your day
My eyes not once release their gaze.
I see as you laugh and smile and muse
And also as you cry, and weep, and moan.
I wish that for once I could be your home,
That I too could stand beside your shadow
And listen as it whispers a sweet “Hello.”
But for now, alas, I simply peruse
And watch and wonder as you go through your days
That maybe, perhaps, we shall meet that way.

Into your shadow, my mind does wander
To a place where you and I could ponder
The relationship that we do share
Like blood brothers, deep in care.
Or perhaps we lay in a warm embrace
Besides each other, with a grin on each face.
Or maybe you’re my son of only a few years
Too whom I may listen to with both my ears
But most of all I know for sure
That you are mine, and I am yours

As I continue to watch, I marvel at the fact
That the shadow I stare into continues to grow
And yet the yearnings I feel will not force me to act,
Not even the baser yearnings I feel below.
The outline of your figure on the drape
Is only brightened by the setting sun
As it seems to attempt an escape
And away from the curtain you run
But do not go! my sweetest friend
This is not, not how it should end!

Alas, it does, and as the moon doth rise
I can only look, with a stare
At the vacant window which once held you.
You are gone, and I alone
To wonder what I might have done
If only I had found the haste
To find you there instead of waste
This day looking as only false lovers do.
But the lesson learned, to best beware
With a lover’s shadows, comes deep despair.