Rain at twilight

Have you noticed diamonds
para-trouping

Have you watched the rain
trickling down the broken face
of a loony rag picker
resting over cobblestones

He watches the crows shaking off
in a flurry
what they cannot hold

Fractured clouds allow the last light
to glitter in his downy eyes

Yet he slips and falls

Darkness deepens the moss-
-covered walls of the city
amid people and cars hissing around

He feels his stubble
the stubbornness of coarse bristles
growing on his soft flaccid skin

the oddity of bright halogens
lighting up the potholes

Crickets drone their night song
a lullaby to his ears