“Down”, by Kim Longacre

From the Fall 1989 issue of Asymptote. :
DOWN by Kim Longacre

You make a lot of jokes and you gotta live ’em down
traffic lights blot the wet pavement
this body hard body soft
against the sky
against a cause to reflect
your name a secret word
a plan
an action
after all
after fallin apart at the seams
gun eyes
firing past one light into one million lights
smoke and sulphur
finding
bleeding
and there I am at the butt of it all
fooling around
fooling myself
kind of dancing
more like tripping
your spot lit proxy
so blind
outa whack
hip and cool
for one fraction of every eternity
over and over
like a square wheel
bam
down bam
down
bam, gonna stay there?
Asking me that with those gleaming pistols
bouncing light one million times sending it on
spending my pride
like it grew on trees
going down
that’s my hand
red
yellow
green
damp and soft
falling
brick hard
by those banging wheels to get you by.