"pretty pretty pretty"
-- The Raincoats
tremor tremor little lights -- i'm looking out west
spread in grids pinpricks globules in carpets
green blue and pink red in broadway's 1200 west neon
the neighborhood houses appear mascara'ed by autumn trees
unlike the mercury cool of the alley lights
or the feeble lights atop head/tail-lighted taxis
oh freddie he dead
saw him -- saw them for the first time
my first show -- at the roosevelt auditorium
on congress in seventy six. i still see a silhouette.
our city is so alive so pretty
and will continue
hovers in a celestial pudding at night at nearly morning
many snores short of yawning
crisp out there -- a daze of clarity
a quiet moment on the elevated line
which is to say -- guess you are snoring out there
would have snored here myself
had i not stayed up two nights ago
waiting for the missing
those who arrived in the western lands
we too will go to the western lands
bismillah --
you met a cabby
under a varnish of scorn a forlorn sweetness
sweetness gone to western lands too
for every globule -- some memory
in every street -- a trajectory
oh freddie he western lands already
but we are still/here
our city is pretty pretty pretty
and will continue