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apparitions of the city (Free verse) by kev-san
headlight reflections
meld with electrical hum
carried through valleys
~
i.
into the shrieking brightness of headlights through the sleet, eyes
stare
gutters will overflow tomorrow and moonlight will again be dulled by
these heartachingly brilliant waves (the last true lights we have, along
with those of office buildings, apartments, and neon lights)
i walk in tune to the ethereal rhythm of the city as a ghostly
flourescent light flickers violently in apartment above me, threatening
to fade away
magnificently, as if blinking, it buzzes rapidly, an eternal murmur of
past glances
the streets pulse as its piercing white gleam undulates madly in the
early darkness of morning
an ashen reminder of life's pure light and the beauty it projects
celestial glow of purity and decadence entwined in a mad spinning of
sounds, feelings, sensations, and sights
an immaculate whisper of beauty
~
purest wind carries
our empty shells across the
grave mountains downtown
~
ii.
she's lost in a state of dreams, calmly laying her head
(a blurred vision of her grace)
frame, frail+breathtaking
(rain patters upon the dirty street)
eyes half-closed, silent+beautiful
(it seeps inside the deserted souls of those upon the sidewalk)
her face is silhouetted by her hair
(the midnight sky shines brighter than the sun)
shades of dark earth, black+brown, weave through her soft hair
(wraithlike figure of nights,
eyes lit by the gleams
of city streetlights
and poets' soft dreams)
her arms lie still, contented and rested
(she walks through the intangible midnight scene in a black wedding
dress, eyes blazing, the hem dragging along the desecrated sidewalk. she'
s floating.)
i don't want either of us to wake.
~
these darkened alleys
chipped gems of faded worlds
shine as cherubs
~
iii.
a crystal shimmer floats blankly in a dark sea of spirits, maniacally
chanting the s??ance of the city lights which shine upon an angelically
restless+spellbound city
the gleam wanders mysteriously between half-illuminated skyscrapers and
through alleyways majestic, swollen in their complexity (even the dirty
streetlamps bear witness to their glory)
drifts by an apartment on the lower east side, slowing for a moment to
stare at a couple through their window (their finally opened eyes are
closed delicately as they glide across the floor, ballroom dancing upon
the sacred ground of the apartment carpet)
glides through the street, capturing a mental photograph of a man
hysterical and heretical, praying hopeless prayers to return to the
innocence of his inner sense (he has dreams of transcending but is
caught descending a ramp as he wanders the lonely sidewalk)
hovers above a closed warehouse, an abandoned soul longing to hold on
coasts with the cool air of new york city's winter above a broken woman,
longing for the breath and pulse of her fallen lover flickers across the
eyes of all lonely souls, who desire the unreachable conclusion, whose
only solace is their faith that
there is life
(in bundles of dirty sheets gathered at the edge of the bed)
there is life
(in leaves falling eternally in breezes of autumn)
there is life
(in the crumbling of bridges)
there is life
(in tattered dandelions covering graveyards)
there is life
(in the beauty of the east river)
there is life
(in skeleton-trees)
there is life
(in dirty gravel forever kicked by shoes)
there is life
(in gutterpoets)
there is life
(even in the deadening vacuity of the mortal city)
there is life
(in confusion stirring towards the unknown)
there is life
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