Rooftop angel

Jesus Christ! in an Irish lilt

A moment of fear in the slide and scrape

Then safe.

this is the fantasy

to live in champagne's bubbly

jazz in jazz beats take me back to the 60s

blow kisses to necks of lovers of nobodies

linger on skins for minutes of eternity

mother don't matter

father don't bother

brother do better don't fall for this family

don't give up on me but please forget me

don't give up on me but shame me then leave me

city engulf me, paris adopt me

pour me a sparkling drink of lonely

light up my lungs my sex my body yes

elevate then deflate me

saturday saints.

gin goes in

time slows down

like lips blowing smoke

secrets come out

Folgeschäden

tariq and maya

one dark one blonde

saw the other in a mirror

saw the other in naked light

felt the other in secret shadows

tariq and maya; one dark one deutsch

now you see him now you don't

do you doubt when he shouts?

do you doubt when he leaves?

do you doubt when he refuses to speak?

and what about when he breathes

deep into you chest to breast?

now you know him now you don't

tariq and maya

one dark one light

what devil sleeps between you at night

tariq and maya

one dark one blind

one turned on the other with a poisoned mind

here on the third floor level with the rooftops

i could be hemingway with a harmonica

all i need's a typewriter cigarette and

i'd be set

i'd be in sync with

the screeching sparrows screeching fugues and symphonies

one frenzied flock per seven words

it'd be like clockwork

it'd be like eureka

it'd be like finally outrunning my better half

party chronicles

i.

the second time in my life I had a whole cigarette

we had our longest conversation yet

you said since when did you smoke then

sat by me and waxed drunken lyrical about

sexual experimentation in high school

girls racing to kiss the boys at prom

I listened and kept forgetting

to turn my head to exhale

(sorry about that)

when we went indoors you told me

to take a final drag on the staircase

then stubbed what was left

on the sole of your sneaker

told me to save it for later

I said that was real classy and pocketed it

then I watched you and ross down

two tequilas

feeling accomplished guilty and wistful

ii.

when I was all over you saying

you’re a cool guy

what I really meant was

fuck you

iii.

there you were waving

two slices of pizza in my face

(they were put together like a sandwich)

insisting I take a bite

I ferociously declined

on the grounds that they would

be crusty cold but you promised

so earnestly that they were warm

that before I knew it

my teeth had sunk themselves

into cheese and pepperoni and

god were you right

god

bless you for being an honest man

iv.

you ran like a bat out of hell

yelling I’m going to climb that tree

next thing I know you’re up in that damn tree

a piece of my teen angst died, and not in a good way.

probably drown in the gutter

in real life

very nearly did anyway

in your life

but that's swell

got more booze than i

got less drunk than i

lost a whole lot more time and

took more cab rides

what life boy, what a life

you'll still be alive in ninety years

having a helluva time

lonely boy, old jane's hung up

stupid boy, the ducks fly south

but that's swell

eventually we'll all die young

eventually we'll figure it out

creed

don’t think just write (but

i haven’t any nerve to go

on what then i

aint no o’hara)

don’t write just think

long and hard feel deep and true

think until you aren’t

feel until you are

wholly bursting with who cares what

spilling your i don’t know until

you don’t give a fuck and

your words are your guts