Car exhaust
drifts upward
into the humid night air
like lost balloons,
from the hands of children.
An over-weight woman
unloads a pile of laundry,
and two small children
from her mini-van
in an apartment complex
parking lot.
The children shrieking
as they attempt to catch
a white, stray cat
hiding under an SUV.
The city cries out
with a wailing police siren,
squealing brakes,
and the pounding bass
of car speakers.
Televisions glow
behind curtained windows,
like the candles
that flicker behind the stained glass
in the back corner of a church.
Gasoline fills the spaces
between the hunched houses,
and 24 hour convenience stores.
The stray cat
under the truck,
lost in the billboards
and traffic cones
of the city.
Craving green grass,
wild flowers
and a night where only
fire-flies and constellations
are visible.
