Night Walk

Lost in thought when the train passes my stop

I hear a voice “This is the end of the line

‘Last stop Harlem where the sun does not shine.”

Doors open to a threatening backdrop

Each sound has an echo. My heels hammer

The pavement, sometimes I forget to breathe

Aware of night animals, monsters that teethe

On witless waifs like me for their supper.

I am nowhere that I have been before

The subway exit quiet as a gun

Street intersection lights flash for no one

Graffiti slapped on every boarded door;

Cries for attention more than an attack.

Somewhere nearby the grinding of a stone

A train pulls in like bone scraping on bone

I hear the high pitch shrieking on the track.