It’s 3 am

At 3am the shadows dance

The skunk runs across the darkness

Slam your breaks

Yell damn

Lit up eyes are all you see

Hit the gas lights turned green

At 3am the rain pounds the pavement

Turn your wipers on high

Was that a coyote

Standing by the roadside

It stood out by the lights of its eyes

At 3 am I am not asleep

Behind the wheel in a city of shadow people

That’s where I’ll be

Newspaper blankets in cardboard mansions

Sidewalk condominiums fill up empty spaces

Loved and loathed

Pitied and despised

An eclectic community

More diverse than any seen in the light

At 3 am the invisible appears

On cement soaked with urine and dreams washed away

In the vacant eyes of those who occupy made up lands

On no map

Found inside their heads

Loyal companions give warmth and love

A pair of strays ignored by averted eyes

The eyes of strangers who dwell in the sun

At 3 am I see the fire

Orange plumes of smoke cry to be seen

Ignored by the moving stories going to and fro

This story stops

Acknowledging the flames

The purge of isolation

Darkness

Of those forgotten

At 3 am this is what the city of shadows gives

Presence where there was none

Purging of just being

The cold concrete pillow that supports your head

The revelation that we exist in a lie

Illusions of safety and warmth

This all disengrates with the setting sun

It disenegrates with the daily death of the light

It’s 3 am and the daily death is has arrived

Care to join me

The shadow people are waiting

A table for us in infinite numbers is waiting

I’ll give you a ride