Listen :: H2O :: I See It In Us
I See It In Us
There!
There!
Dave yells.
Hughes’s Cavalier jolts : stops :
third space from the entrance.
Rock star parking!
The glass door obscured
by smudged handprints
closes behind us. Fluorescent
lights : Christmas decorations : shouting voices
that never form words
engulf us
cut off
the winter night.
The food court packed :
teenagers eat slices of greasy pizza
children throw Happy Meal toys
mothers stare
with bags of merchandise
to exchange resting between their legs
eyes focus : shift to stares : as we walk by.
band T-shirts :
hoodies : skateboards : studded
belts : mohwaks : liberty spikes
meet up outside the Gallery of Sound.
Old women scurry
JC Penney to the Hallmark store,
tired men recline on benches,
their gaze
always on our group.
Hot Tony from Hot Topic is on break
Art and Sean mooch money
underage punks bum rides to Metro
Dave skates through the crew.
We gawk back,
at their wrinkles and grey hair,
their high-water pants and orthopedic shoes.
One old man has an inky
blob sticking out
of his shirt sleeve.
I stare into his eyes
he stares back
What does he see in us?
His high school days :
a pack of cigarettes
rolled up in a white T-shirt sleeve
as he ditched last period
to smoke under the bleachers?
His wife slams her shopping bags
against his legs : looks to what
he stares at.
Does she see
the fuck-authority boys
her mother never let her date?
Does she see
the girl she always
was too afraid to be?
back roads & city streets 