Nightshades

three poems

NIGHTSHADES

On a clear night the braided fires of the city throb like stars

The pulsing air is carrying melody, melody;

Alone we hear and see the scent of dreams

Stir through the crowd, the currents of dark flesh singing

Swirl in a dance through the streets of the heavenly city.

The fiery curve of the Pier drops into darkness

An arabesque over ocean: ancient alleys

Jostle with laughter and flesh, the poppies the lilies

Ensnarled in a dark corolla of hair and lips.

Tinsel burns in the light and the arc of music

Swings out over night to the stars and the passing ships.

Deep flows the undertow, the old piers creaking.

Submarine fleets creep out through night towards Asia.

In the deep fault before dawn the bolts are shot

And alone we see the crowds dissolve into nothing.

The stranger returns alone through the streets of the city

Under the dark and clouded eye of God.

Then away below Broadway the lost men drift through night

Their crumpled faces grey as the sweating facades

Drifting into the midnight, as under their heavy breathing

They hear the swift revolutions of the clock.

And feel through the heat waves of wine and through the

fumes

Sexual music, and know through their deep

Strewn accidents of loss and mortal being

Woman curled like a white cat in their sleep.

Without a sound we move from light into darkness

The glare of the screen a star in the dark of our skulls;

Out into night without sound without color or music

We go from the feast of the world to our personal history.

Out into the harsh night air of the city, the perfume

Of musk and heavy gardenia thick and still

Wrapped around our throat like Spring in remembered

gardens,

Wrapped around and flung like a scarf of smoke and silk.