Empty Me - Anne Clark

Now that all is stilled and silenced

That the rushing roaring daylight

Has lost itself — it’s hysteria

In the all-amassing night —

I too gently lose myself

Beyond the open window

Where a journey unfolds

Into the city of rain

Music’s never made such living sounds

Absorbing the night’s rythem

The walls resonate with a thousand tiny drums

Soft shards of liquid glass dance on metal pipes

Mixing dust and dirt and grime

Into a shining lubricating all-consuming oil

Some drop away barely making contact

Each bursting on impact

Into a fountain in the air

Dribbling off the lips of window ledges

Splashing silver splinters in the blackness

Scales of lifted paint turn to almost living flesh

Smearing — it slides and streams into a opening

In the underworld below

Revealing secret routes

Where the trappes earth breathes

Yellow streetlight breaks it’s beam across the water

Electric currents hum, steaming in the dampness

Cascades carry me away

Wash away the tiredness

Cool the fetid air

I turn to where you’re sleeping

Gently swimming through these hours

On to morning — unaware

And even though i know

All of this rise and disappear

With the dawn into the sky

Tonight everything glistens —

Like a jewel under the rain

Tonight the city is silenced —

Lost under the storm