the city stretches
tiredly shedding the
sleepiness from
stormy nights
where the rains
never quite found
the ability to fall
a pregnant longing
under a magnification
of solar insolence

i woke under a pile
of mostly empty bottles
my left ear sounding
a strangulation of
stabbing reminders
looking for one more
sip of what ails me
two black eyes from
picking fights with
the stubborn bastard
glaring back in the mirror

trying to tapdance
down a line of unmarked
landmines of the mind
threading the needle
between earnest and
aching from the rush
of hyperbolic existence
fingerpainting delusions
with a pallete of
sunrisen bruising and
intoxicated painblossoms