-and the dark seems profound
in the corners of crooks of building's elbows
they cradle that which they have found
stray cats
flown litter
happy ivy

sentient, but quietly, built to stand and shine
the streetlights are the only soldiers
but they glow indiscriminate, haloing crime
tonight, none
they see
me go

red carpet, grey glistening black, bone slabs
cigarette buds lie, my roses
and chills scuttle in the underbrush, hard biting *****
the night
doesn't seem
so frightful

whisper this, over and over, louder than the sea
which crashes, as is its business
but no one is awake to hear it, none but me
constellations glow;
their cities
are alive

away in the custard ink of our unknown space
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus...Pluto
dance, smoother than an apparatus reflection, emotion in face
wishing my
eyes could
be telescopes

metals, dirt, bone and fur, gas and water and soul
cocktail elements, curved, twisted, moulded
our perfect globe, full, awake, but- within the solar pole
we are
so tiny
and lonesome

our companions of the sky, past our eyes, kept curtained
by the dark which so cradles in crooks as the sun slips
explored mechanically, unknown personally, unburdened
but the
stars are
our proof

of family.
from them.