anonymous
is the secret pleasure
of smoldering at a stranger
on the street,
knowing your eyes —
let alone you —
will never
again meet.
looking in from the outside
guessing at the life that happens
behind the orange glow
of a stranger’s window at night.
a story — like so many —
that isn’t yours to know.
the way an old person looks at a child
warms and breaks the heart.
two strangers share
the deepest stare.
a man wearing a denim jacket
and worn denim jeans
picked up a cigarette butt
from the sidewalk,
inhaling the final word
of a stranger’s seven-minute story.