elevate.

elevate this
eight million
categorizing in your brain
creating lines
when truth lives solely in the bend
so this is tuesday
mixing jazz with the hurdling roar of the F train running a line
that borders the geographical center of alcoholism
singing an old nina simone song
un expected
me there in my 7th street loft
the body of a girl
and the woman i would become while i waited for the rain
five stories up the steepening stairs
along with the sleeplessness of wired telephone lines
ravaging hunger
pennies in the pockets
broke
watching the way i create life out of itself
around the corner
past the man with a freckled nose
between tompkins square park
and that hairy-lipped woman that resides forever at the windowsill
here i arrive
after the flat irons of boulder
after three nights shacked on a peruvian bed
after early morning matte in the pan handle
after wine drunken nights skinning dipping in the reservoir
after desert nights and a full moon expecting
here
lost in this city i just had an idea of
elevate this
oh! lower east side
how i wished to lay long
naked on your brownstone bed
a muse for broken days
between exposed brick
and the words echoing off of someone else’s page
grit wedged in the spaces defining my teeth
it doesn’t matter where I go
this city haunts me
with temptations to fall hard in love
as
the world falls hard
crashing against two ankles
shattered expectancy
of how well the mind knows what it knows
and knows nothing at all
elevate this
eight million breaths before you die
below the bowery
breeding life into the indifference
living is such risk
the street
a bus a second off schedule
the airplane i will board tonight
poetry itself is a risk
staying here is a risk