The Calm [Prose]

It's the sun that watches my back, wiping off
the drops of sweat with clean sweeps round my abdomen,
warming me with pink gold. Tonight, it has barely passed
nine o'clock, and as I drove home half a mile down the road,
I see him.

He, being a dusky man older than I, with blank pants
and a blank t-shirt whipping from his hands.
There is little wind, but I can almost feel his ferocity
with every step he takes nearer to me.
I have taken the short-cut home,
not really being as cautious as I am wanting to soak in
the rest of day before it is lulled to the horizon.

With rosy sunglasses on, my cheeks blushing from the sun
that tasted me behind, I smile at this young man, glancing
at him only for a second. But a second is long enough to reveal emotions.
His glare is with me now. The way he detests me!
I feel like some stranger, though this is near the road I live,
and that somehow I have intruded upon him.
I think it's the same boy who swings across from my house.
I can't look closer. Is it him? The boy who lives down the street,
walks over in the heat and even winter, every day?
The boy I barely know, but surely can't be a stranger to?

Then I glance to my side, before slightly accelerating,
unnoticeablely. The man I realize now is nothing like the boy
I've seen out the window before, and his almost perfect white
teeth flash at me, baring.
I don't know what to do but turn the music higher and question
myself as to if it is a just a somebody, or the boy from my town,
on the same road.

A song enters my ears about heartache. I wonder what it's like,
why my heart jolted at the thought of that man frowning
crookedly at me, if he wants me gone.

I almost brake as I drive down our stone driveway,
being quiet yet thoughtful and then I see the other him.
Still all black dressed,
maybe with a baseball cap, but thoughtful looking.
Directly across from our two front yard trees, he sits
at the farthest swing in the playground....moving calmly,
gaining height.

And I've always thought it was his thinking place, to get away,
to be with serenity.

And I know now that the face of beauty I saw down that road
before, was just the marks of a beast who made no kindness
towards me.
But this man, as I walk into my house, has a sweet face.
Not open-mouthed, ready to fire words, but quiet, shy? and who
I believe to be one who craves the lonely atmosphere.

Maybe it's just me, but my heart is put at ease when I know
that the boy who always walks, twice a day, to the end
of the playground, would never pierce my eyes like that....

all that's there, that I see

Is calm.

Written 7/16/2012.