a narrative in verse,
memoir fractured & reset like bone,
but twisted

Broadway, the artery of an island
the length of the hypotenuse is
approximately the same as the
geometric volume of my desires
swelling within

valentine hangovers
metronome hearts frozen midbeat
a generation in pre-spring restlessness

I’m named for a saint
I’ve been told I resemble that
desert island TV time traveler
gonzo leathertramp, his personal
cartography trek begins uptown
cataloging the 1000s of species
of passersby, and compiling a
mixtape commissioned for all
burgeoning romantic imperialists
we all shall soon sing that
heaven is whenever we can get together

On fat tuesday, his south ferry goal
sore shins rested in a revolutionary pub
where a dame with a nosering crochets
while the Irish poet relays sold stories
& haikus
“love conquers all (unfortunately)” he warned
everyone chuckled, half-hearted & uneasy
alas, love is the king of the beasts
a lion parading upon the savannah
of manhattan avenues

& we, love’s prey, lent ignitors on the
sacrificial eve, three sheets sailing
upon the holy water, dabs of ash
between our eyes, and cigarette
smoke within
in the sentences of us, there
rests creatures we long to exorcise;
parenthetical & accesory, but who
would choose life tamed & leashed?
there is no love where there is no
obstacle. our fears become nooses
tightened on the veins we wish to feel
pulsing in another’s contact

& once, she was.
the light of her eyes, shimmering
& wishful, like shopping mall
fountain pennies tossed,
her eyes housed an academy of
angels, ascension, heavenbound inchwise

a man on ash wednesday shakes a
paper cup of dull pennies on
79th and Broadway. I replay
the songs that deliver me elsewhen,
better times past, and pray I can store
your image away ‘til Easter.