The mirror of deluded beauty
The moon spoke of secrets
The human heart
Was still yet to grow knowledge of;
And there he sat,
He was beautiful, he was perfect,
With a secret only the earth knew,
Wrapped in darkness,
But reminding me so much of the light.
He lit a cigarette,
And the smoke drifted to the roof.
He seemed fierce, somehow,
As if, when death would come sauntering into the bar,
He would invite him for a drink.
I wondered what brought him here,
To this place,
This night?
Why did he love whiskey so much?
My gaze found him again
And I realised how much life
Could drain away from a soul,
How empty people can make you feel
And how whole a filled glass
Can make you think you feel.
His gaze suddenly lifted and found mine:
For a single moment in my life
I felt as if the creatures on this earth
Were connected.
I stared into his hollow face, his eyes ablaze,
And I understood then how I knew him.
I knew him because he was just like me,
Because we sat alone in a bar,
Drinking the night away.
We sat there because we knew life
And we found it beautiful;
But the thing is:
The beautiful world is what destroys us.
