The city purrs, it hums along, the morning hardly risen.
A well-dressed drunk smears her finger across a doormans lips and whispers.
Someone stumbles. Someone curses. Someone hoses down the pavement.
We must have made a mess of things again, all fuzzy black and white
and greenish at the corners. Some final thing
that put us in our places.
Youre still standing in your winter coat alongside
everything you wanted and deserve. But you were thinner. The desk clerk
looked right through you. The cabby didnt listen. You were
out of sorts back then, you say, but
youre still frowning!
In vain a shrieking siren repeats itself
and fades. The quiet idles there, a crosswalk signal chirping. Youre still
standing in your winter coat, but I dont know you. Someone
scrambles down a fire escape, his shirt a flag
thats shredded. A boy
salutes. And then his mother, too.
She stoops to smooth his collar. She makes a sculpture of her packages.
Youre a different person now, you say, but
you will never happen.
It Takes a While to Disappear
written byRalph Angel
© Ralph Angel