Shared Umbrella at the Loading Dock

Clock stutters over the golden dark noon

But the light looks thin

Cardboard boxes lean like rumours

While the rain taps hard again

I was half a meal and a full-time worry

Trace still warm in my hand

Slit under the umbrella

Like you already knew this plan

Falk on the bench

The wind cut through the paper sack

And the cracks in the curb

We talked in fragments, tired and slow

Every sentence saving its nerve

Your smile came brief

Then the sky got mean

Then the puddle started to bloom

Lunch breaks stretched like a bruise between us

In the warehouse room

Shed a brother, go to Jack Green

Same gray minute, different pain

The demon lunch break, go where it goes

Side by side in the cold back row

Fourth lip peaked in the distance

Rhythm riding under the storm

You said the day had been breaking you down

I said that was known before

I watched your sleeve take wire at the edge

While you shifted closer and further in

A small thing but the whole afternoon changed

Where the silence had been

When the bell rang out

We stood still a second

Neither of us wanted to leave

The sky kept dropping

It sold heavy weight, but the gray cab learned to breathe

I folded the paper tray in two

And carried the moment back in sight

Not a love song yet, just two more strangers

With one shared strip of sky

I-I-I-I-I, I-I-I-I-

Developed, floating like a plane

Same way, many different pain

I need a lunch break, nowhere to go

Side by side in the cold back door