Southern Ease

Southern Ease

It’s 2 am / 10th street and Cornerbrook / where all the windows are frosted with memories / the bricks show wounds of war / jailed tattoos / all the shops sell lollypops beside forties of Bourbon / the smell of diesel takes you to where others drive away from / smog beneath street lamps conceal the pushers / pistols in their jeans and ravens in their pockets / no one round here knows where they’re going / where they’re headed / I think we all must have took the wrong detour /

shame I gotta come all the way up here for a smoke /
it’s a blues bar for Christ sake /
fuck democracy, what happened to civil rights? /

my breath disappears into an unclaimed heaven /

where’s my lighter? /

above / a fluorescent blaze illuminates a spotlight outside the door / a stage for us who want to remain hidden / the South Hampton train passes / leaving all but the black cloud of a burning coal / smeared across the shadowed sky / like the whole god damn place is about to set fire / like the lipstick on that diner napkin / from the girl you never called because her eyes had done all the talking / you got the best of her anyways / the thunder of a Cadillac’s engine echoes like a gapping hole in the pit of your lung you hear every time you breathe in / a group of prostitutes surround it like vultures on their last legs / pretty girls / battered like hell / but nothing $50 can’t fix / one had a shaved head / said it got in the way of her day job / the strike of a match brings me back / a man holding a unmoved flame /

thanks /

only thing it did for me was fuel my cigarette / only thing it did for him was sneak beneath the age in his face / one of those guys whose figure only alludes the boy / he walks into the bar / a door riddled with pages of hope / no one goes in there without baggage / wanting to spill onto anyone who will listen / I’ve heard it all /