something sinister lurks in my bed,
beneath the hedge rows and
the hidden doorways in my head.
it follows me through deserted streets,
quiet; save for the glowing youth,
who drive to the church parking lots
and gather in pursuit of some
night, some place to start a fire.
Uptown there are stars; the moon
brightly mirrored, as the street
slopes Downtown to disappear into
smoke and fog.
The houses Uptown are all asleep,
their blinds pulled over their eyes,
furnaces snoring, as invisible people
disappear from their beds, and go
someplace else.
The people Uptown, aren't better
or worse than the people
Downtown,
simply, luckier. Peacefully
recreating their surreal lives,
they are different from the
bands that i can see poking
in and out of the shadows,
down; way down cherry street,
who blow jazz rings into the night
and burn.
The vibrancy of the Downtown,
shakes the telephone poles
of Uptown safehomes,
causing sparks now and then to cascade
into the street, only to be
swept Downtown again.
Some distant music, and the curve of
the street, pulls it down so that
I find myself realizing it is only night
Uptown, and that dawn is never breaking;
a twilight of neither dusk nor dawn,
above Cherry Street.
Awake. A restless street where it is not
ever night or day, no sleep and awake,
but some transitory phase
between the two.
Most people live
somewhere in between Uptown
and Downtown,
because most people are neither
dreaming, nor awake.