a city plain enough
for all the world to see
though round the edges rough
it always seems to be

as half the city sleeps
long past alluring Dusk
lonely screams creep
from eventual husks

sirens blare
while i grow pale
and cast a prayer
to no avail

a city plain enough
asleep at thirty to three
missing finer stuff
to keep me company

laying there, wide awake
the night not quiet yet
i shut my eyes for my own sake
and wait for silence to set

i hear ambulances convene
on the parking lot below
whisk away a pallid teen
without her soul in tow

my mind is forever *****
as a war-torn sieve—
i could never forget two-thirty
not for as long as i live