what draws me to him
who fills and stabs my heart
with every line
the brutality of his realities
bounces off the pages
of his beloved city by the bay
with its bridges
and its neighborhoods
its kayaks and its prisons
its drugs and its poetry
sparkling under city lights
that brutality which can nevertheless
not kill the tender beauties
known only to his eyes
which search for the ever elusive
sense of wonder
aahh wonder
his beloved would-be companion
that softens but cannot erase
the hard truths of love and death
between his sheets
© Vilma Ginzberg, 03-08-2021