downtown hot spot
halfway up the street
i used to be free
i used to be seventeen
follow my shadow
around your corner
i used to be seventeen
now you’re just like me

down beneath the ashes and the stone
sure of what i’ve lived and have known
i see you so uncomfortably alone
i wish i could show you
how much you’ve grown

downtown hot spot
used to be on this street
i used to be seventeen
i used to be seventeen
now you’re a hot shot
hanging on my block
sun coming up
who is my shadow?

We’ve been told space
is like two dark lips colliding

like science fiction
it outlines a small cosmos

where fear hides in a glow
where negative space

becomes a place for wishing
a constellation of hazy tunes

of faint sharp vowels
a glossary of meteors

a telescope to god
a cold bright white

maybe distance damages us
maybe Jupiter

will suddenly surprise us
with a notion of holiness

but instead an old planet
takes over all the space

and we are reminded
of the traces of fire

in our gaze
defining our infidelities