THE MIME

 He walks by

Dotted and painted with an armor

That wanders the lonely paths.

A hat kept forgotten on the swing

Next to where he sat

As if it was another's who had just left

It swung to and fro

He was waiting for him to come again.

Everyday the swing carried

The air around it

Into a wave that soared

When hope rose

Before the sun calmed the waters

And the music of the tides

Called the birds of the night to roost.

He was mute

As he frequently told

The giggling children

The impatient elderly

The unaffected commuters

On the benches

Underneath the umbrellas

Whose shade never fell on him.

He walked 

As if he sprung on every step

Some thought he did it for a laugh

And some found it amusing

But it was pain that made his feet recoil

When they touched something that existed

Before the ground beneath him vanished

Again.

The thought of a day coming to end

And another that had just begun.

If ever someone dared to look

Through the paint

The decayed portions

The dilapidated lips

They would creak loudly

Like a door too out of use

It would gape open

Gasping in disbelief

To find if someone had knocked kindly for room

It would lay bare its floors

The ceilings, the walls

From where the benefactors

Had ripped the portraits, the china vases, the chandeliers

The roses by the bedside table

Ashes scattered around the fireplace

The woods cold from the open windows

The dust would dance in welcome

To caress the feet of the lone shadow

For a shadow meant light existed

Be it far away

Light existed.

A scream would echo

When one climbed up the staircase

Which would make the snow on all the mountains crumble down

And a fire would rise

Melting all the waxworks 

To rivers of nothingness

Yet no word would sound from his lips.

So the mime dances the Dance of Agony

Through the forbidden avenues

The hushed bookshops

The silent canals

Onto

The roofs of cathedrals

Where he sits beside the gargoyles

When they pour out rainwater

Sitting within the light

Of the stained glass windows

He finds

All the colors man forgot

To paint on his face.