To a Passerby

Caught in the fray of evening’s embrace, I see a glowing stranger, drifting by, In the midst of nature’s crowded space, Wreathed in twilit colors, unto the sky.

Your eyes like stars that hasten to their die, Walking through shadows, all senses confound, Yet the air remains thick with questions why, Entwined with nature, footfalls soft to ground.

Oh, whether you come from distant shores, Or darker corners of my own despair, Do you feel the depth of these sighing moors, This garden tangled where we rest, so bare?

Let us pause, dear stranger, forever brief, In this twilight union, let nature’s thief.

• Charles Baudelaire