What I want, you can't

give me. It's not just money

I need these nights

and days I wander downtown

streets, my eyes

deep, the anger they keep

bottomless. Put me aside,

away. I've spent

my time alone, a cell

like a cage and me

the cat that prowled

its bars, my mind

sliding into the streets,

around corners. They put me in

the dark, but I became

a man in the light.

My fear is you.

But the way you look

at me, I don't shake,

it's you quivering,

scared of the night

you see in me. I'm

like a deep shadow

on bright, cold concrete,

I'm a hollow

near your heart where you feel

the bullet from the gun

you know you got

because what I want

isn't you -- but

you'll do.

(This poem was inspired by the Dontay Carter profile in The Sunday Sun.)