A Summer Night

I sit alone with a cold glass coke
resting my back against a parking lot lamp post.
I’ve become accustomed to being alone.
A single ruler over my own personal Rome.
And still I smile.
I’ve learned how to still have fun without any friends.
How to make some nights never end.
All I need is a board to carry my feet,
and empty bending streets.

Then there are some nights I just want to run.
I run from bad guys with guns.
I run in a race against the clock.
I run to hide from cops.
I run to catch the love of my life.
I run because I’m trying to take flight.
I run to play a game.
Sometimes I try to out run the pain.
But tonight I run because my heart tells me to.
It’s tired of staying at a standstill,
and moving like a snail.

I know I’m made for something bigger
but where I’m standing,
it’s not anywhere near.

I know the clock is ticking
so I’m running and searching
looking for my kingdom.
Our kingdom.

The whole world is our kingdom,
and summer is our national holiday.
Our independence day.
It’s time to celebrate our royalty.
Just follow my lead
and pay no head
to the negative nay sayers
and Debbie downers.
This is our summer.
The summer for royalty.

And when the party is over
you’ll smell it in the air
for miles around.

Oh how I miss the smell of summer nights.
it’s the smell of distant camp fires,
new found lovers,
and freshly lit fire crackers.

It’s the smell of night games at the park,
sadly illegal street art,
and races in stolen shopping carts.

It’s the smell of star gazing on roof tops,
empty bottles of pop,
and someone smoking pot.

It’s the smell of distant rain,
a dog being house trained,
and pizza for kids playing a kissing game.

It’s the smell of loud rock concerts,
late night party hunters,
and future hangovers.

I need to get outside
where the night is alive.

Out to a grassy park field
where I become lost
dreaming in the sky.

I watch the stars
dance across the heavens
like ships
sailing across oceans,
filled with angels
in search of lost souls
like mine.

I’m the kind of lost soul
who goes about the day
slowly being drained
by the questions that fill my mind.
Often times I can’t sleep
and seek refuge from myself
at an all night diner.

I remember one time
being so fed up
with the lack of company in my life,
that as the hostess sat me
at my usual diner table,
she gave me a consolation smile.
Knowing it was for my lonely lifestyle,
I smiled back.
“One of these nights,”
I promised myself,
“I’ll bring her here.
The girl with the auburn hair.”

As I ate
my midnight breakfast,
I felt my mind slip away,
to a place of nonexistence.
The place of forgotten memories.

Then I decided
it was time to fix this
with,
an unconventional remedy.

From then on,
when this town kisses the moon goodnight,
I’m kissing it hello.
I’ve become a midnight warrior.
A full moon howler.
With a spray can in hand,
I hit the dark and lonely streets,

leaving my poetry,
to show others,
and prove to myself,
that I am alive.
I do exist.

-Carlin Miner