Periapt on the Sash Lock

Under this billboard where the shadows are safe
       from savage light, protect me. Keep me

       from the shifting shapes the high beams make
that become you dancing, or laughing, or touching

your lip. Shield me from the doppler shift the faces
         of old friends take telling me I could never

reach. Hold me. In this splintered window frame, I am
between you and the fire escape, between the rust
       of this city built to carry me to solid ground and arms

       that could give me everything else. The bolts
       say, Tighten up. The statue of a rabbit fighting
at rat says, nothing to see here. Please, tell the faded

             graffiti no one can read it never spelled
your name. Protect me from safety, from falling
        asleep on a floor engineered not to fall. Keep

me from sharp definition, from becoming only
      one thing. Shield me, oh please, if you can,

            from forgetting how important the pain
            of reaching is. Because to touch just once
       would mean. Hold me back from forgetting

       how easy it is to become this city, to never
slip from the threshold and shiver somewhere
                inside me I had never even guessed.