by Ted Onulak

Created on: November 03, 2009   Last Updated: May 08, 2011

On my last night in Vienna

It was two, no maybe three

I was admiring the shadows in the Tiergarten

Or maybe they were admiring me

My sax was now soundly sleeping

In her plush black velvet box

That jet-setting vampire and me

Had been around quite a few cosmic blocks

She was a dream I carried everywhere

That nightly drank my blood

But together we played the Night Time Blues

And forgot about all the other crud

I sat down on a deserted bench

And pulled out my cigarettes

The scratch of the match softly echoed

Burning bright as my wordless regrets

As if sprung from the silent cages,

There appeared a strange new friend

Another lonely spirit

Mourning the Night’s tragic end

She wore a short black leather skirt

And black stiletto heels

Black pixie hair combed forward

And Danube eyes, blue as tempered steel

I offered her a cigarette

And expertly struck a match

She was a beautiful feline hunter

But I didn’t feel like much of a catch

Through lips as red as poppies

She blew smoke rings, Briefly dancing then no more

Like chance meetings in the night

Between gentlemen and whores

The three of us refrained from talking

As the warm smoke filled our lungs

She crooked a red lacquered finger

And purred in her dear German tongue

Oh, yeah, I could speak her language

In many more ways than one

But I only had the Blues tonight

When all was said and done

She seemed to get the message

Then rose and bid me good night

I listened to her click her heels

Long after she left my sight

I felt a bond with old Herr Beethoven

Slowly going deaf

In his rooms in Old Vienna

When her measured steps had left

For I had been told I was going blind

Just a few crossed out weeks ago

But I had decided to live, and see it all

Until the day I could see no more

The night never stopped calling me

And wordlessly shared my smokes

But there was no sense in waiting until dawn

Or for any of its ironic jokes

So I played another chorus of those nighttime Blues;

My cage of sixteen bars

Just one more creature in the Tiergarten

Imprisoned, under the stars

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