people like to come down here
to flirt with decay
but they don’t stay
some do
some settle in with the sidewalks
city blocks sinking toward
yesterday
life, still
homage to a time long abandoned
by its people
resurrected by ritual
celebration
even as every stained board bears witness
to the claim laid by swamps
at the edges of the ever-drowning world
ever taken
backs against the wall
on the precipice of Mount Sinai
culture clutched in desperate fingers like pearls, sand
remnants of tiny triumphs
lessons slowly unlearned
seeds of a new religion
harvested from a dying day
Clamor 