I used to dream in black & white.
Now I dream in Albuquerque.
Ragged city, lovely city, damaged city.
City of lost cats & abandoned cars.
City of blue against orange,
of murals against sky,
of tile chips floated in mud.
City of last licks, second chances.
Of silk & gauze & chenille & oilcloth.
Epic city. Mythic city.
Stink-eyed city
of rust & grit & gravel & graves.
Loose dogged city.
Of cross-hatched streets, mortar & lime.
Stained city, below a piñata moon,
paper mache mountains & tack ragged skies.
City of stalled clouds & cold winds.
Of bulrushes, sedge, cattails & cottonwoods
and gunny sacks in pick-ups trucks
Sluggish river, muddy river, terra cotta river.
Albuquerque, poor thing:
Fingerless, armless, legless, limbless,
Stranded on a corner,
505 tattooed on its brown belly.
Under the tent of your blessed funkiness,
a horse stretches its neck and whinnies.
There’s no looking back
as I trail a skateboarder who glides
down Central in a Day of the Dead tee shirt.
I used to dream in black & white.
Now I dream in Albuquerque.
Published in Adobe Walls, Duke City Fix