Rain lashed against the fire escape,
I know where you’re hiding.
The metallic clang echoes
in the narrow alley and
I can hear your heart beating.

Rain or shine, your heart is still beating lonely.
The cracked pavement stretched
beneath a canopy of fire escapes,
their rusted railings like
skeletal fingers clawing at the twilight sky.

Amidst all the overflowing dumpsters
and the peeling paint,
your heart still beats.
A bloody tomcat with a torn soul
and a perpetually grumpy expression.

She wasn’t always a resident
of this forgotten world.
She used to chase butterflies in a sun-drenched garden,
purring like a rusty engine
on a lap filled with warmth.

But that was another life, before the expulsion came.
The alley held no butterflies,
only the scuttling of unseen creatures
and the occasional drunkard stumbling
through on their way somewhere else.

She is a heart of a bloody tomcat
with a torn soul and a perpetually
grumpy expression.

A forgotten memory of
butterflies in a sun-drenched garden.