Vanished Before

A man walks slow enough
to breathe the luminous
smoke of calm, to let
how many hours of pain
drop the way only gravity
can take a stone.

His shirt's not nice
or tucked in well.
His pants are too
grey to be blue.

But, like all of you,
he has vanished
before my eyes and I
got to know him
as indescribable.


by jerry gordon