So deep the summer night, lights in windows 
have long set, but on the porch across––
a hundred steps away?–– You two sit facing each other 
under soft stringed bulbs, chatting-chatting-chatting! 

How you infuse my melancholic solitude with nostalgia, 
you don’t even know;  
how you invite a mute smile to ripple  
around my lips, do you even know?  

- - - 
J. A. Odartey