Daysleeper

Slick red walls and open bottles,
close your eyes--and you can hear it.
The beer, the faces, the street,
are all swirling pitch till 6:00 am.

Glisten like a penny. Be tall (be obvious),
Move awkwardly. Your shoulders are-
gawky wings.
Let the language drain into your ears,
until it saturates your brain.
Drip dripping down your spine like
an unearthly drug.

Try to fit in.

Curl up in the back of the car--
while Ani drives a barren world.
Dry scrub and white adobe-
Here even the buildings
look like foreigners to their own land.

The club is:
dark-haired crowds
jostling outside a building
screeches and burbles and smoke
high heels and purple
ragged jackets, flashing eyes
and me.