Placing

girl in red lapel leather
and sweet sickly smell
blowin' thru 2nd street subway
cheekfat soft rubber steps

a lowcut city sunset
sneaks where buildings crouch
and people walk like that

like i am now
past trio of collapsing
neighbors
as they 'must' be seen
making slow style
stinkin' garbage job

or just that final thread
so hard to snip
in smog of pointless effort
belief in status quo

and if they continue
why should i stop
stepping with superficial style
over grace ugly in its
resoluteness

beautiful

safe on my stage
deep agenda set
hidden in the cracks
between community
watched

this place
soaked up by greedy weeds
dressed in the pathos
that surrounds
desiring something
but feigning princes walk

and the dogs in tompkins square
the blue above avenue D
the social clubs and bodegas
hurt my eyes like paint

there are so many places
i could walk like this
alone or
unnoticed
surrounded by players
pretty boys
pushers
and bums
gangsters
stylin'
and women dressed girly
fixtures on street-corners
fixtures in fresh bars

i could scream for peace
of natural quiet landscape
unbroken but for
motorways and the desperation
of agriculture
walk through expanse of maize
or obligatory saplings
alone and
unnoticed
lost for the words
i should have memorized
by now

searching the discarded
history of broken signs
lolita bra and
the sneaker king

perhaps in the shrapnel?
or in the space between
getting here
and closing my door
looking for loose ties
fringes that could
comfort me

theres something about
the particular shine
of rootless eyes
that terrifies

draws me in
lets me forget
the nothing i came from

and walking
i feel pushed

into my home.