CitySong

(to be read to the wailing of a didgeridoo)


Click shick!
the windblown flame of the battered Zippo
fills the doorway of the dark hotel;
My cigarette glows like the last log on the hearth.
I close my eyes --
    my ears
        are taken


Helicopter blades slice the night
circling like vultures,
they put guns to the city's head;
a motorcycles snarls
patrolling its territory;
neon signs hum nonsense
about flickering dreams;



I try to focus on the smoke that 
fills my lungs and burns like home.


a Volkswagen on its last leg;
a tow truck wanting to go home;
a fading street lamp buzzes
buzzes buzzes
loud in my ears --

but not louder than my brain
my buzzing screaming brain 
I'm trying to set it on fire
another breath
set it on fire on fire fire



radiators boil over;
bats everywhere;
a lost brass horn;


the symphony is constant;
when I run to the back of my eyelids,
the city still sings --
dissonant, mad,
warm like blood;
every night like a final performance:


  desperate and tense


a street sweeper moans and shuffles by

this cigarette is too small to hide behind
when it's burned out I'll head to the diner,
play some Elvis,
wait for the next high 

~~~~~


CitySong first appeared
on Medusa's Kitchen