pause
by Davian Aw
we walk down empty streets with naught
but inanimate life, driverless cars flashing
headlights to warn and uncover and glint
momentarily off the wet sheen on the side
of a robotic trash can, turning round and round
in the perverse solo dance of malfunction
with grasping claws that catch only air
all around it rains the dream rain, slowing
to a glowing suspension of water threads
before hideaway alleyways, dark open portals
that might still have people within them,
mere ghosts of consciousness that flit and worry
a plane apart, unreachable
in this forever night, time has run its course
to leave us be with noontime stars
and echoing images of our pasts;
the reckless youths we used to be
speed out an alley, laughing—
wheels crush newspapers, crackling leaves
outriding the stars and searching streetlights
to corners where darkness still reigns
and no one will find them
for they are the only ones left.
remember that time when there was time
unravelling in persistent linearity
and we thought we could lose ourselves
and still find our way back home;
we are the only ones left.