The Cost of Waiting

A stranger passed. The coat.

Faded drab. Smell of smoke.

I could not find the note,

The word that might have broke

The long silence. That wool,

Worn thin against the chest.

I let the moment lull,

And put your heart to test

By doing nothing. Stone

On stone, the years went by.

The ash has long since flown,

Beneath a vacant sky.

Now just the ghost of thread,

A phantom in the street.

The words I left unsaid

Are just defeat.