Big City Speech

By W. S. Di Piero

Use me
Abuse me
            Turn wheels of fire
            on manhole hotheads

Sing me
Sour me
            Secrete dark matter’s sheen
            on our smarting skin

Rise and shine
In puddle shallows
            under every Meryl Cheryl Caleb Syd
            somnambulists and sleepyheads

Wake us
Speak to us
            Bless what you’ve nurtured in your pits
            the rats voles roaches and all outlivers
            of your obscene ethic and politics

Crawl on us
Fall on us
            you elevations that break and vein
            down to sulfuric fiber-optic wrecks
            through drill-bit dirt to bedrock

Beat our brows
Flee our sorrows

            Sleep tight with your ultraviolets
            righteous mica and drainage seeps

your gorgeous color-chart container ships
and cab-top numbers squinting in the mist
Copyright Credit: “Big City Speech”  from Nitro Nights, © 2011, reprinted by permission of the Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Copper Canyon Press.
Source: Poetry (June 2012)