Storm Clouds Over Cincinnati

Awake alone and sober in my bed at 2 a.m.

Going through my recent camera roll

Bizarre

How life manages to move so fast and slow at the same damn time

Ceiling fan chopper whirring away

In an effortless constant speed

But I still feel as hot as a lake of fire

With just a thin blanket on me

***

It’s easy to ignore the hourglass

When you’re on a sandy beach

But not with your eyes on the nightstand

As the seconds flash in chic

***

This universe constant is vicious and vile

With actions people take that I won’t even put to words

Let alone express with rhyme

So many things have been making me think

I’m tired of trying to form a thought

That could pattern-explain away this mess

***

There’s no cohesive narrative

I’m tired of pretending there is

***

If all I want is to lie in peace

Then what will I want when I’m lying?

With my stretched-out sleeve I cover my face

So my tears won’t know I’ve been crying

***

I’m alone in a confusing world

With nobody coming for me

Under the darkening layer of storm clouds

Over Cincinnati

Each of us is forgetting ourselves

One lifetime at a time

Competing and tumbling over ourselves

To be the next big way to forget

At the center of free fall’s hill

***

We stutter like culture in the early 2000’s

With a wobbling balance of counters and crimes

In a grungy defense of the arrogant grime

We polish the rust on our likeness, in time

***

The sound of the night, there’s something about it

That’s lonely, like we tend to be

Even when we’re around people

We flash ourselves with the blinding lights

Of headlights on dark roads

Deaf and blind to the waterspout flow

That says we’re not alone

***

On the River of waste that flows through the city

Bedazzled trickster lights

Luring the loneliest objects of pity

To dive bars and dazzling stripper fights

But on the River of waste, glowing and pretty

The current flows with ease

Not even knowing it carries the trash, there’s no one it has to please

***

Screaming sirens and bleeding gums

The echo never stops

Across the lonely storm-struck city

With seven hills and seven drops

Down to the pit of reality

In the belly of the beast

Where the only way to see the light

Is to cut your own self free

***

I’m alone in a confusing world

With nobody coming for me

Under the light through a hole in the storm clouds

Over Cincinnati