Time please

time please

on a quiet night - they're mostly quiet
but at least, today, the jukebox is dead -
i can hear her faint echo, fading into the walls.
here you are, so there'll be no more singing
til next time, by accident, when i must sit and listen.

i've listened to you and i've listened to me.
you've gone now and alone again
i'm remembering how you've told them before,
gently gently away to your other self
until it's my turn to say that's enough.

distraction.
did you have any idea how right you were?
perhaps, on consideration, you knew damn well
and that's why you asked.
you knew, damn well and damn you.

so the lights have gone out, nothing left but to sit awhile,
knowing what's next will always depend
upon what i find behind that door,
until it's the end, when the end will find itself.
and you're home now, feeling nothing
but your everyday essential worries
of all the tomorrows you can imagine.
a matter, we are, of time and no space.