instinct subverted,
his eyes
catch
tuck tail
ping
off concrete
and return
like some tilted pinball,
traffic quick between.
.
couldn’t be twenty-five
years ago that boy
chained up in gold, blue
tattoes on a skin web
say
hey baby,
leaning easy on a rail
and offering the dollars
tucked in the silk suit,
handkerchief pocket,
winks for all
i’d pull in on a weekend
and laughed
and i laughed right back.
.
that street jam
confidence now melted
by blue boy eyes,
scattered in trimmed treetops
above summer lawns
sprinkled green:
i let that happen.
somewhere lost
the bone knowing
grace of filth
like born on a trust fund.
i wasn’t.
.
suburbs don’t happen –
they ooze,
busting us close
against every hedge
then spitting us out
on the world,
instinct shot.
.


