as stiff as a backboard protruding— jutted bone / fetid waste the smell of weeping willows tears rolling on the blackbirds little-black-face cars whiz by in a hurried pace we fiddle the locks to close out the last of what remains no feeling of need to be on time or need— to be someplace it’s…

the windows are rattling / vibrating warrior drums / drumming up battle the traffic is doubling in immensity steel thrumming / brakes grinding / growling engines the vulgarity in population density thickets / then thickens gridlock cemented / tourism almost non-existent / instead new-residential-sales increase / billow / like sails on the gulf stream blowing…