shrug

I'm startled
by this late revelation
maybe if you had
told me
a few years back
it would have
been different now
but you didn't
and that's that.

escapade

you poked around
on purpose, grinning
tearing the shell

suddenly
there's no cover

have you been
to the fair recently?
they now sell
unbreakable bubbles.

how it works

he died
and his ideals
died with him

you sold his stuff
and made your bucks

the magic

some connections

cut across

cities

and countries

and sometimes

all the pleasure

lies in knowing

that it's there.

lady*

dry rancid laughter
rings through the smoke
heavy, weary
in alley darkness

a voice breaks
in a jagged scrape
as she sings
breaking through

the noise
the pin-prick
vulnerability
shielded by pride

finding her way
with familiar, bitter ease
she laughs at them,
their glass hearts

she sings
the crowd weeps
she smokes
she lives tomorrow. 

------------------------------
*thoughts on listening to Lady by Regina Spektor