The Old District

It is just past midnight and I am walking

Through the old district

With poorhouses all around me

And poor faces leering out dirty windows

With milky pale eyes seeing nothing

Save for blurred shadows

Nighttime brings danger

But this is the safest part of town

For the residents are too feeble

To perform criminal acts

And their minds are too weak

To harbor thoughts of villainy

I might as well be a ghost to them

A silent specter slipping by unnoticed

More fog than man

Leaving behind no lingering imprint

My footsteps echo once against the darkness

And disappear into the calm winter night