I eat chocolate cake
on a rooftop cafe.
Slouching for comfort
In a metal green chair,
I look out to enjoy
a dusting of fine mist
over wintersun.

A layer of building
Thick and warm,
Bump and stumble
Along the Tagus River.
Dark crumbs of old houses
sliced up against the new.
Chipped pink and lemon
Cracked mosaic of blue.

Windows tucked
into blankets of shade
Others held up by
shoulders of concrete
looking out wide eyed and free.

In the wintersun I shiver.
All I see are places to hide.
I collect crumbs with the tips
of my fingers.

Such slow longings for sweetness
And a view to the river.