Twinkle Street

A skateboard rides a clumsy boy.

His ears are plugged against

The beggar who sings old standards with the Voice of God.

No fair way to say this.

Somewhere some tomcat cries out, maybe

Hurt its paw or

Maybe just trying to fill the space with its

Vagabond jazz.

Do you remember when you

Looked down an alley and saw

A man turning out his insides,

Burning up his crystal corpse

On a piece of conspiracy blocker.

He had nowhere to go but up.

And do you remember,

Lines of queens-

Homecoming, drag, and hearts,

Some crying to their lovers over

Spilt wine and the line of dust

He breathed in the bathroom.

It made him angry-

No fair way to watch this.

Stooping down outside the drugstore,

Rubbing hands against the night.

Never-been’s lament.

Across the street, suits in chairs

Goggle at the outside.

“Thank God we’re in here,“

They think,

“Instead of working through some trash can

on Twinkle Street.“

They watch their back as they exit,

Thinking somehow they’re important enough

To bother.

They don’t bother.

And do you remember still,

A man took his last breath last night on the curb,

And it was so cold that he

Actually watched it dissolve,

Float up,

And vanish.

The next morning,

Nobody could find him.

But now that he’s out,

He looks from all around.

Out from the gutter,

Down from the stars,

Beaming from the trees.

There’s this staircase that leads down,

Sits between a trash heap and

A predator’s playground.

But there isn’t any door there.

Just the steps. Only it’s

Deep enough that you don’t see there’s

No place to go until you’ve already

Gone down.

Nobody ever does mostly,

Just some fifteen-year-olds too young

To be here.

They pay no mind to the ones who’ve

Been there before.