Central

I was never central.

Your
thoughts and hopes
impressed elsewhere.

I didn’t mind.
Or at least pretended long enough to believe
I didn’t
Which also failed to impress—
my fortitude or lack thereof—
adding to your exasperation.

Odd how—
now it’s true—
I, un-minding and disinterested,
Am, of a sudden, the center
of your smile.

And since it is true
my smile back
is genuine.
It says—

Don’t hold your breath.

Concrete

A concrete desert, that’s what this is
as wind-whipped and skin peeling
but lacking sand’s flexibility

You are unimpressed and I
am tired.

You say, at least it’s not broken
these heavy parking lots to nowhere
uncracked, viable, and ever so—

Useful
a saved world of grimy spaces
for people who never show