Alphabet City

Paris underground, got to get above
to breathe in colored light and rain,
somewhere the girl with the doe’s eyes emits scents
when she’s warm again, but for now the metro is too hot.

The last drag on a night as it nears
dawn, I retain my poise even though I shuffle
and carry myself contemplative, in the rush of early stars,
late tears, departing planes, misted red tail lights.

I can see the flicker, a thousand cycles per second
impressions to strobe, so I dance and pulse intentionally
out of time in order to preserve the macabre, the long spindle
of my spine held erect in this samba, tendrils limber vines.

I bow best in tuxedo, she curtsies in gown, with spit-shine shoes
and perfect air waltzed down the stair rail, shined baluster
on which we glide so gingerly, how I embrace her at the landing
night lamps hushed low in the hall, the turn of some century somewhere.

The kiss is beyond confusion, tousled minds and souls
echo against the marble and ceramic, the air about our noses
warmed by friction of lips, my cheek incessantly tickled by her lashes,
such a brace at the race ‘long the length of the neckline.

I am lulled by the rattle of the trains on the rail,
forever between stations is such a long time so I ride
legs astride between two cars and enjoy the time
in and out of the tunnel, warmer outside, I wouldn’t have guessed.

I apply supple pressure subtly there at the small of her back
help her to find the updraft, the current to ride like the leaf on a scree
tossed, disassembled to light once again, after-starbirth
prepartum blues ere the birth of her new world.

She becomes the moment, blends polymorphic
her biology transmutes to be the time I experience, upon which I cast
my living sine wave, transgress as a pulse I impose on her
downbeat, very much like knotty riffs of rock ‘n roll.

In my dreams I’m often running until I go lucid
where I remember I’m flying of late
with a body like hers in my arms, so heady and weightless
albeit I fly pretty low, blessed just to be near the neckline.

Chagall 2016