The Night Is Just Ripe For Us All

 

I see the vultures circling Penn Street

Rats wear hoods on this side of town

I can’t seem to get my bearings

It’s unseasonably warm for this time of year

But you can feel the cold a-comin’

You can smell it

 

Your dreams aren’t broken here, but

They did get roughed up a bit

Chewed up and spit out

Ain’t no solitary tap dance tonight

More like solitary confinement

Caught inside the aching tomb of the city

 

Jitterbugging in the slaughterhouse

Five days ‘til Tuesday and I can see my baby

Eyes like diamonds and an a*s that makes me

Fall in love each time she walks away

People say one day I’ll change my tune, but

Until then, this ol’ record will keep on spinning

 

The way the light hits this town

Makes the shadows look like a bit off

Like they, too, are trying to escape

All the weeds look like dead rats that couldn’t quite

Make it through the cracks in the sidewalk

 

The wind is blowin’ through the streets,

Blowin’ right through us

The night unfolds like some wicked origami, but

It’s all part of life’s rich pageant

Layin’ on the floor, shirt tails untucked

Trying to rewind the night before

 

Sippin’ my whiskey, sittin’ through a tongue lashin’

Words bouncing of the four walls of this here apartment

Hate, love, hate, I guess would be the cliff notes of the evening

If you were keeping taps that’s one for and two against

Story of my life

Take big steps to trip up and fall back down again

 

On some foggy autumn night

Peace and quiet (eerily quite)

Like the gods are just scheming for you

But all we want to do is chew it up and

Swallow it whole,

‘cause the night is just ripe for us all

Reviews

[Lily Mae]

"Eyes like diamonds and an a*s that makes me
Fall in love each time she walks away"

I love the way you expressed this.. the poem as a whole...was great. It felt like I was there watching it all..x

[Kenneth The Poet]

Powerful urban grit. The cold, the rats, the sewer, the degradation left behind from careless capitalism. Excellent stuff for sure.