poem for an old friend

caught in your darkness, old friend
you are not my friend. as if hair

could replace the sun. I traded that light
for years of days, once wrote poems

your dark eyes, saying words
like nocturne, gull's wing, egg of moon

but they are just dark -- as hate
dead father you carry, the alleys

you drag yourself through night after night
in your mind. don't write about my pain

as if it was something you woke up to. Your own--
all you ever knew.