the tune swirling out of the piano

dissolves at the touch of my weak smile

and drips onto the dark pavement bitterly 

i contemplate my escape but all too late

the sad charm grasps a hold of my cold hand 

guides me to his warm bourbon ridden growl

he sits cross-legged  in a dim bar

(like the ones they built back in the old days

shackled in posters of “most wanted” personnel)

busy howling through a veil of smoke

all of it stabbed me deep

and i bled in the right places 

glued to his mischievous smile

witnessing spilt magic

in the shape of soothing gentle whispers

strummed out with his charcoaled fingers

fingers burdened in a shade of lovely loneliness

and that

lovely loneliness

a burden it’s all

is what i have always carried too

and i know that you know that we can never escape from it because we unwittingly signed a contract that declared that the burden shall breath on for as long as we live

through the crowded noise i scream so he could hear those words

i open my mouth but the words never came out

when the silence walks in 

a bartender walks out of nowhere

straightens his bowtie

and announces that it is 

“closing time”