Davis Square, 2am, Litha

[kitchen_kink]

It's the shortest night of the year. Rum singing in my head atop the sweet whorls of passionfruit and mango, I float in and out of shadow, strolling home.

Once or twice I practice a stance of defense, an alert posture learned from years of city living, the dance of you-can't-be-too-careful in a town where I've never known trouble.

It's quiet. I don't see a soul. A bird sings so many different tunes in a row I wonder if it's a machine, duplicating birdsong, that someone has hung in a tree in the ballpark just outside the square. I remember a story about a city mockingbird who'd learned to ape car alarms. One after another, this one sings tunes for a sore ear in the middle of the shortest night of the year.

Every air conditioner rattles; every streetlamp hums. Along with the idling of taxis, the silence forms a subtle chord, tuning to the harmonics of neon in the pizza-shop window, the fluroesence of a disembodied hand hefting a Coollatta to eternity.

Even the hippest coffee shops have closed.

My muscles sing the warmth of a night walk, alone, safe. A police car rambles around the block with nothing to do. The sidewalk trees sigh. In the doorway of the Goodwill, amid the debris of the day's donations, a bearded man peacefully sleeps.

Comments

[sweetmmeblue.livejournal.com]

If you change the formatting of this prose it would make a lovely poem, one I bet you could get published in a local mag or something. It's lovely pose and the images are so clear. Very nice.

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I tend to steer away from poetry these days; while I did study it a trifling amount in grad school, I concentrated mainly in fiction and did my thesis in short fiction.

Poetry tends to come in bursts, at moments of emotional height or depth. This is kind of like a prose poem or tone poem; to my eye it would need much more than formatting to become poetry!

Reminds me of two of the best definitions I've ever heard: [Literary] prose: words in their best order. Poetry: the best words in their best order.

[sweetmmeblue.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested in seeing what you do with it, if you decide to do anything with it. I prefer prose poetry and try to stay away from rhyme.

[beowabbit]

And if you don’t change the formatting, it’s still lovely. Thanks for posting it.

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

Awr, thanks. Walks home late alone can sometimes just fill my head with stuff that wants to come out.

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

I'm glad we did it. I still got a clean 8 hours of sleep, though I suppose a disproportionate few were actually *at night*. Yay for increasing comfort!

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

Yay indeed! And thanks for lovely drinks and talks and hugs.