It is nighttime in America.
Drive-thru speakers squack,
Back porch doors are latched,
Tires squeal one street over,
Church bells ring around dusk,
Mothers calling in reluctant sons,
Lines form behind velvet ropes,
Daughters don too-short dresses,
Dogs are given one last daily walk,
Bibles and bourbon bottles are opened,
Veterans take their sleeping pills,
Guns are slipped into waistbands,
Alcoholics panic and revisit Walgreens,
Bedside radios are tuned to ballgames,
Pizza deliveries crisscross avenues,
Seniors retake their pharmacy regime,
Muffled curses ride evening breezes,
A florescent hum connects the counties.
It is nighttime in America.
Night falls bruising her elbows
And skinning her knees.

11/04/2011

Posted on 11/04/2011
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