Dream of a cherry stone

Now
shadows appear
under the arc of your cheek.

Under the scaffold
where you walk, I follow
gathering courage
to greet you, years
having passed before
you pass this way.

A cherry stone
splinters between my teeth,
the meat eaten, the juice consumed,
red shreds
cling to the kernel.

A concrete stack
looms over the dusky street, the sky
eclipsed.

Your cherry-bright face
was round and sweet, your eyes
nut-brown, now dim
under the scaffold
where we pass. These years
I've never seen
you walk where I walk

under the arc of your cheek,
the sky eclipsed.

I slide between the cracks in the pavement
under the children
singing.