Stranger in Town

By Cedar Sigo
Life in
       unbridled
 
       collapse, Let tuneful praise ascend
 
                                Not a single line
 
                    out of step with my band, aboard
 
                    the riverboat
          when the sun
                      shown red
 
and especially dark upon my room
 
                                           I was shown
                                                          to 3464
 
                                                     once Jack Lon
                                                                  dons
 
                                            I was told.
         The black forest alcohols
 
                       filled my mind, my one & only skull
 
                                   with rock crystal
                       (The Butchers Field)
 Its grass &
 
the stream
          cut my rooms in 3. I write & I laugh
 
                                    to think again upon the stream,
 
                                                             its demon
                                                      black mask
 
                                                lights under-
                                                                 neath
                            My servants stay fine
                                 &
                                  lower their eyes
                 I proclaim the empire, my coat of arms
 
                                  & cigarettes
                                                to be held across
 
                 façades of cathedrals, crimson the flight.
 
                                        More than one death
 
                                  from a square
                                                     bottled ink
 
                                     The MARVEL brand
 
                   I enjoy reading signs
 
                                       through the fog—
 
                               -HOTEL HUNTINGTON-
 
Then that evening
 
    and all of
 
             Fox Plaza  was the same white
 
                             A permanent
 
                                              stripe
                                    on my blue bike
 
                                    I raise my hood
 
                I think there are other lost men
 
in surrounding blocks
 
                             alike in their thinking
 
                          “There is
                                  no other man
     to enjoy
               such fog
     besides me.”          to wander tracks
 
                                    in clear
 
                                  star cut
                                           ground
 
                                 I am sorry I said
                                                      he was
                                                already high
 
                   We got so high together
 
                   and I forgot to say
 
                                           I had invested a lot
                                                                     in my first
                                       walkthrough
 
                                       the greatest
 
                                          Marco
                                           Polo
                                             single file
                                             best roulette
                         There’s a bad moon
 
                                                     on the rise and I’ve got
                         quite a stash
 
                                      rubbings from the calligram
 
                                                          graves,
 
                                                                  I have explained their
                                                   hollows and brick
 
                                             a cross where it is written in
                                                                                   script
 
                                                    YOUNG BLOOD STRAIGHT EDGE
 
                              Impossibly accurate                 the fifth wristwatch
 
                                                                           diamond
                                                           on the 12
 
                                     I have reached the cave    it has been
                                                                   shot up.
 
                                 & I am punished to this day
 
                                                            ruby under
 
                                                                             black
 
                                                                  letterpress
 
                                         My name goes first.

Copyright Credit: Cedar Sigo, "Stranger in Town" from Stranger in Town, City Lights Spotlight No. 4. Copyright © 2010 by Cedar Sigo.  Reprinted by permission of City Lights Books.
Source: Stranger in Town (City Lights Books, 2010)