peering saucer-eyed

out into the wet darkness

over rooftops near distant

the city shimmers, a neon

metropolitan mirage that

beckons with mesmerizing

paper-thin hopes and seeps

with callous betrayals,

under this paler cloak,

the slick hypnotic night

speaks different tongues

both daring and cautious

menacing the unprepared

whilst corrupting the naive

© Graham R Sherwood 02/25