Ralph Angel

Today, my love,
leaves are thrashing the wind
just as pedestrians are erecting again the buildings of this drab
forbidding city,
...

Because it all just breaks apart, and the pieces scatter and
rearrange without much fanfare or notice.

Because you can't and don't remember the step that kicked up
...

As if you actually died in that dream
and woke up dead. Shadows of untangling vines
tumble toward the ceiling. A delicate
lizard sits on your shoulder, its eyes
...

Many setups. At least as many falls.
Winter is paralyzing the country, but not here.
Here, the boys are impersonating songs of indigenous
wildlife. Mockingbird on the roof of the Gun Shop,
...

I miss you too.
Something old is broken,
nobody's in hell.
Sometimes I kiss strangers,
...

I don't know man trust is a precious thing
a kind of humility Offer it to a snake and get repaid with humiliation
Luckily friends rally to my spiritual defense
I think they're reminding me
...

The city purrs, it hums along, the morning hardly risen.
A well-dressed drunk smears her finger across a doorman's lips and whispers.
Someone stumbles. Someone curses. Someone hoses down the pavement.
We must have made a mess of things again, all fuzzy black and white
...

I'm standing on 10th Street.
I'm not the only one.
...