The paved beige stretched over–

Beneath the careless sky.

Didn’t you see the street

Ran with cheap beer and perennial philosophy?

… When that poor sod couldn’t even shuffle his way to work

Amid the signs and sights of this cold city[?]

Nero’s circus wasn’t always round, and when it was there was far more blood.

(I knew. I know.)

A thief in the night

—the uncarved Wall stands between

Me and the street—

He’s pocketing here and there,

This and that,

Beast and birthright.

But nobody told you he could climb!

Everyone at this open-air party

Sulks and skulks and trudges flame and fate

And toys with the timid notion that even Heaven plays

In tune with those double-dealers that straddle the sidewalks,

Selling souls and organic salads and plastic-wrapped theodicies.

(Ninety-eight ways to go out with a bang in the televised jungle,

But you’ve stuck it to him, haven’t ya?)

Our supple bodies stuck to the storm drains,

A trillion lives and miles disgraced by everything under Heaven, 

And, among the toils and boiling heads

That rage and roll beneath the quiet stars,

I’ve cast my vote to that thoughtless ‘Wide’

—The careless Sky—

And these Barren Streets.