Slower & slower & then, for one
Whole month, it spun so fast
It was impossible to be jealous
Or afraid or lost. Pants flew
Off of strangers. Lapdogs floated
Away, zigzagging across
The sky like balloons. Police cars
Cruised through neighborhoods
Trying to calm the masses, but
No one could understand
What was being intoned
Through the crackly megaphones.
The paranoiacs thought it was
Another kind of deception, another
Orwellian play. The hopeless
Felt squeezed, beaten down
By the twirl of the flashing lights.
But the rest of us almost felt
Good—dizzy & cleaner & wayward,
But not too far off. We walked
Around talking about love,
How we'd see each other
Through this, but, every morning,
We woke thinking about
The dream all of us kept
Having. The one where we're
The only one left in the smoldering
City—the gold & pearly
Light shining on the intricate
Lock of our cages.
