Everything might decide to hurt us around here.
We should see how much of the moody unknown
will embrace us for forty-five dollars.

The coffee will still change as much of the world
as we can reach from where we sit at this counter.
Should we decide to leave these sadistic lights
in the middle of this very dark town,
and come back a couple of months later.

We’ll still be out of the work,
and cats that look for bodies without motion
after 8 PM are going to be around even if we’re not.

That guy who used to try to sell cars
while people were off buying groceries
they couldn’t afford,
he’ll probably still be wanted for murder.

Nothing is going to blow over around here.
We’re still going to hear instrumentals winding up
for the possibility of a bloody climax
when we go out to get beer and cigarettes.

You will never learn to sit still in the backseat.
I’m never going to win and lose a day’s worth of fortune honestly.

Leave the auditorium that used to put on the best
low-budget wrestling extravaganza anywhere.
They tore it down last October anyway.

Change doesn’t have to be scary.
The blue and silver Christmas empires built with foreign blood
will probably have smiling angel statues
that seem to change when the thunder and lightning
are circling each other like prizefighters.

Just like the ones we have on Everett Street.
Just like the ones we saw down south last year.

And we can come back,
if we really want to,
and your dreaded birthday will probably be
right where you left it.

And my name will still mean pity and trouble
to enough people to fill an elevator
that’s gingerly making its way out of hell.

One of those elevators that’s big enough
to hold a city council meeting.

04/22/2013

Posted on 04/22/2013
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