finding no solace, no relief in speech,
Rose drove all through the rundown
part of town in search of a man who
would just stand next to to her in silence
and held her hand. because sometimes
men are useless and most of the time
they do not even amount to that
uselessness. she knew the expression
"finding no solace" was cliché'd but,
still, it really was what she meant to
say when she thought it, when
her brain's mouth spoke it. "finding
absolutely no solace whatsoever
in speech, i must drive all through
the rundown part of town in search
of a watch that can still tell me whether
it's time to give up breathing or not".
instead she found a man leaving the
old automat, looking sad and aged,
capable of silence and decline. so,
they spent the night in her car,
under the railway overpass, saying
nothing, eating away at a sandwich
and seeing lights flickering, electric
daily fireflies dying on top of steel sail-
-less masts on ghost shipwrecked ships
sinking heavily into the city's belly.