A WayOut

The Damned

In Memory of Stevie A

"A Way Out" by gg.zaino

Melancholy,
canyon walls mocking,
newcomers wary.
Off frozen salt waters
blasting an apocryphal landscape,
banshee winds roll scornfully
down Dorrance Street.
At eleven below- they come as damnation bearing down emptiness.

Providence...

Vertical glass, red brick, and stone;
how they withstand
the dispiriting wind,
screaming ferocious,
biting the face while spilling its guts.

Across the plaza
a cobbled menace for the sick ones.
Breath suspended at eye level-
trees stripped,
caverns sealed,
bronze statues bold- unflinching.
Ice-covered grasses brittle,
fractured skies extreme-
blistered...

We;
the huddled ones
the distant ones;
Longing for
awaited spoon liberation,
belt buckle redemption;
an alternative- not a choice.

We shiver a way out
the canyons refusal-
a way home,
out of the Arctic- withstanding.
To briefly soar- escape...
While Stevie dies
on a soiled linoleum floor...

gg.zaino 3/12/17