repetition of a song

take me
to a place
where midnight
accumulates
 
don’t want
to see the sun
anymore - put me
on a train

with no windows
where nighttime
lasts forever
& a speed-mad
 
engineer with
a mechanical heart
high balls
a coal-black engine
 
through
time tunnels
like a bullet
leaving a gun
 
where the speed
of darkness
is faster than
the speed of light 
 
dreaming up
a nocturnal scene
mingus & monk
softly
 
behind a tan-skinned
lady, white orchid
in her hair
singing "keeps on a rainin"
 
just give me things
i can depend on
red wine, old times 
the repetition of a song

house of cards

whiskey-laced voice
of a sidewalk showman
stirs the night air
under a bigtop sky
 
vanishing coins...
shifting cards...
a homeless magician
works the boulevard
 
shell games
on a suitcase
covered with stickers
from this place -- that place
 
hustling & rustling
every cross-town bus
that drops tired faces
to congregate
 
like cartoon minstrels
with cinemascope eyes
ready to be taken in
one more time
 
before the last
bus leaves
the station
& the flim-flam man
 
disappears
like the burned-out
letter on the sad cafe sign
just up the street
 
where he sleeps
in the back booth
& dreams
about the shattered
 
house of cards
he once called home