November

the almost stale-taste donut damage
with that soggy cracked sugar glacier coating
telling me I shouldn't take a bite,
shouldn't take another bite
flaking sticky flakes onto linoleum land

and I'm four AM asleep-awake
half-dreaming in the fluorescent flicker
looking for car keys and a wallet

the broken lamp post bleeds blinding beams
through icicle drops that crash
slow motion so the pavement can soak them up
soaking up the chime of an open door announcement
closed off as I pull it shut

all alone with the cold and frozen, foggy breath
I never know if it's right or left
and the wheel just turns turn-signal-ward

twisting blur of motion sickness trailing night lights passing by
stop lights, street lights, head lights
and a moon fading crescent carved chalky white
the sideways, sideways slant of mirrors
closer than the objects they reflect

the hum of five thousand revolutions per second
delirious gas fueled fantasy's phantasm
coasting on the momentum of a pedal pushed too far
intersections intersecting, reflecting in green
names of dead men that whisper all the way

between the lines of white and yellow
hypnotized in the motion of wipers
wiping back and forth against the world

until the wet black conclusion's numbered post
parked, pedestrian passage into moths
dusty floor boards and a lock that swallows keys
and two porch lights blurring with haloes
like angles... and I'm home