Sewer Siders

Ashleigh’s little brother
Knows a man who lives alone
In a home without any floors.
He lives beneath the ruined city streets,
Below where all the children play:
Living by the sewer side.

“He’s the man for me,”
Ashleigh told her little brother,
Without a pause for breath
Or doubt.

“He’s just the man for me:
I’ll be his constant lover
And he’ll be my breathless warmth.
He’ll steal me away to his dank retreat,
Below the cracking pavement,
Where we will kiss most tenderly
In his hall of buried shadows.

“And when he takes me as his bride
We will be married in the gloom
Witnessed by the sightless sea
Forever to dwell
In this matrimony
In this cold cavern
By our sewer’s side.

Ashleigh’s little brother
Wakes alone in darkness each morning
Now that the bride and groom have drowned.
He lives below the towers of glass;
Below all the dull-eyed people;
Below where all the children sleep.

With each unbidden thought that floats
Atop his foul play-stream,
He lets the grey world pass him by:
Watching from his sewer’s side.