...noir

blank stares
muffled words
elevated tracks
rumble and squeal
as trains hurry past
and strangers converge
on crowded sidewalks
likes ants drawn to their hills

local pubs spill out their drunks
as evening wears on
night air thickens
cigarette smoke
and cheap perfume
waft around corners
as night girls sell their wares
and pimps assess the profits

lonely men with throw away girls
dissolve into the streetscapes
amnesiac lives running rampant
in the belly of the city
not wishing to recall
the abuses of the past
sins of the fathers
mommy’s dirty little secret

they run like scurrying rats
on tarnished hamster wheels
no beginning or end to the madness
all exit signs blocked
they run to forget
until the wheel no longer turns
one too many lines on the mirror
and forgetting is eternal