the city

the pavement quakes up my legs like ivy traversing

keep me rooted, i beg

i watch others float away & stuff extra bits of shattered concrete in my pockets.

keep me rooted, i beg.

down under the manhattan bridge overpass i breathe salt water that tastes like jetty & watch the geese, the ships, waving with the water.

keep me rooted, i beg.

the 7/11 man calls me smiley & i smile because he expects me to because i am smiley & this is what smiley does.

big gulp of ginger ale clutched close.

keep me rooted, i beg.

i cry on the 4 train, the seams of my shoes splitting open & pray with the woman who takes my hands.

keep me rooted, i beg.

this is the city where the people blow away in the wind

but i will stay the course.

i will not let the breeze swallow me.

i fill my bedroom with art that reminds me i am loved

while he fills my bedroom with black ink that stains everything it touches & i crawl onto the fire escape trying to glug down a fresh air riddled with car exhaust & smoke.

i wake up in the middle of franklin ave,

jamaican patties & joe & sal’s pizza wafting over my head like biblically accurate angels coming to shift me to the other side.

i claw the aroma into my lungs.

keep me rooted, i beg.

i flee from you, a switchblade in my palm.

it doesn’t break skin.

sweet little knife,

keep me rooted, i beg.

metro card, key foods, magnolia bakery,

keep me rooted, i beg.

hold me the way my father does.

bucket drummer in grand central,

keep me rooted, i beg.

like my sister’s breath in the darkness of our childhood bedroom.

sunflowers on hancock & lewis,

keep me rooted, i beg.

like my brother teaching me to roller blade.

waterfall in prospect park,

keep me rooted, i beg.

like my mother’s words.

there’s too much air in a city with no oxygen.

my lungs are made of helium.

this is the city where the people blow away in the wind.