Fitzroy

I was caught like a fishhook / in the soft dab of my lower lip.

Imagine me

Please

As the lamps turn on

and the soft yellowing of the

bulb finds me wanting

with my tongue waiting

to catch sweet honey sediment

and forgive

that from the Vanguard to

Fitzroy Alleyway I smeared

Maybelline Crimson

I was caught like a fishhook

in the soft dab of my lower lip.

I see

the dawning

Crash a splash

of crystalline

spectral and lovely

spreading like

the memory of a star

lovely under the

crunch of a boot who

broke the bulb finds

and forgets I have been here

with my tongue

waiting.

Stop

and suddenly it da Shhhhhhhh wns on me that

I am engulfed in a

drowning sea an

alleyway I can never seem to leave

I am mixed in with the

Maybelline Crimson my

palms are raised to sky

my aching feet

are pierced by glass.

I stay

Please

Stretched out on the pavement

fingertips rubbed raw on the

aging stone

listening to how King Street changes

as the lamps turn on

my hungry tongue still waiting

And suddenly it dawns on me that

I have been here my whole life.