[Poem] The October City Rots

 The October City Rots

This night is a rotten fruit

hot with maggots and garbage

tossed onto the street this fall, dark October--

Desperate windows flung recklessly open 

over unknown footsteps, a wretching laugh, 

and the lingering sulfur of cigarette smoke

We are purplish children sunbathing in an urban corpse tonight

I was ready for salt this evening, not for rot 

as the leaves fall, looking twice

Please send the white fog back to me 

to cleanse this demon tide—

When I fall, I want to tumble 

clean into the next world

Not corrupt with indecision and envy

Let me die a little without this rot

Let the cold come and the season change 

and the cool conviction of

loss settle deep into this city’s concrete bones