Tertulia:

On Battling (Baltimore Strut) Gray cased in gray, shaken             and truncated like timber,             the bleat rouses all provinces, calling each seed to surface and insist on a redress. This trumpet             of grief and homespun placards             is met with gunmetal treads bruising the fruit stands, mustard gas suffocating the night's             coruscation. As elbows             lock before storefronts to shelter shop windows from the wallop of pitiless             Kevlar, as flares browbeat             boulevards and arsenals are dispatched across the wet gravel, a single shirtless             seraph unfurls himself             upon the tarmac. Flexing faux leather, he gyrates, feather- glides, thunderclaps, then jukes             toward the 16,000-pound             armored personnel carrier. The bullying smog flinches at his voltaic gait, as he peacocks             into the boomerang hour,             cranes his neck and shrieks  to remind the intruder your tanks are no match for my toprock. Days of Being Wild (dir. Wong Kar-Wai, 1990)             (Dissolve) At the funeral of his birth the seamstresses sing matte-muted adagio of rouge and torn hems. Oleaginous in both mane and vow. Bronze king of ennui. She drifts across oxidized hallways. Her dress, the slug line. Blue filtered lights and non-filtered cigarettes imbibe them. CUT TO:          Closing credits. Exit. Pressed             suit preens for role             as auteur's unsung enigma. One mistakes soliloquy for an affair. The other lives as an atoll, divot- headed and bleak-lacquered. Boast-throated, he follows her like a tracking shot that took the crew three weeks to stage. With days drenched in despondent night, they mutiny through stasis, resist CUT TO:          Again, that infernal clock.             Train car hemorrhaging, roof             top scaled. An ellipsis. the throttling of the hours toward shopping carts glutted with ailment. These railways run parallel but incongruent; one stretches toward longing, the other hunts for omission. They sleep in the wind of radio static. She sways for the unthreaded fishhook. He is a desert gawking CUT TO:          Suitcase. Flower print dress.             Unrequited knock at brass             gates. Clock, grief-stricken. in Dutch tilt at the inebriated street that spurned him. Reviled Coke bottles. Bedroom slippers under the vanity caught in soft focus.   Castigated like a dipsomaniacal gumshoe by the blunted edge of minutes. Triangulated cravings asphyxiate them. Each tantalizes CUT TO:          Pearl earring gifted to             the second thief once             reclaimed from the first. the other through taciturn tides of withholding. Hell-bent on boring the sea. But this mise-en-scne does not belong to them. This is the viewer's Malebolge, a whorl of truancy spliced from B-rolls of rambunctious prodigals who refuse to catch what they chase. CUT TO:          Clock. Stairwell in need             of serenading. Threat posing             as flirtation. Opening credits.             (Fade in)  Disco Ballistics friday nights we prep for hot skirmishes. take three to five business days to primp and pick out duds. shave. apply makeup. contact all accomplices. hail our platoon.           then a cab. breach the checkpoint             with a wink. order a round of shots             during tactical strike assemblies. stake             out our first kill of the evening. flanked             by chaise lounges and black lights.             the beat drops in syncopation             with our first village raid. clink our cosmos like mac clips. chuck disco ball grenades into middle schools. flirt bump and grind. spawn mushroom clouds in unisex bathroom stalls. flick cigarettes sucked to the filter onto the casualties             we create. the styles we pilfer. smack             lips in the mirror. launch glitter drone             assassinations. snipe the bartender's             digits. swipe high-security specs             detailing an after-party in Kabul. drop             big tips like food rations into Yemen. barrage insurgents with shock and awe of strobe lights and unsanctioned gropes. engage in a war of attrition with the dj. execute a fashion victory march through the city square. retreat to a downtown studio loft bunker. order               a stop-loss for champagne brunch             in the meatpacking district. debrief             platoon on the briefs graves pearls             buried and plundered. court-martial             the sun for insubordinate conduct             during the ceremonial walk of shame. Cicatristes (Demo Version) who tucked you in                who tucked you                  brought you to the park who tucked you brought you lemonheads      baseball cards marbles            who tucked you touched you     brought you the dark you feared       who touched you when he tucked you              told you it was supposed            to make you smile                but you did could would should    not smile when he           tucked you brought you      whittled you into alabaster    who tucked you in also taught you                 alphabet and shared        his nerds with you read to you       stole you stickers before he          tucked you       read you fed     you dark and now you laugh because        it cauterizes the conundrum the humdrum to recall who gave         you the word the sour stomach           who tucked you slit and gauzed you       gave you first aid and who           granted you the means         to read it Core Curriculum Standards: PS 137 tiled floor bedecked sepia of potato chip wrappers wet newspapers rusty nails gym shoe musk ambling through unkempt hallways fissure fresco of soda stains ailing fidget spinners computer lab windows swathed in shroud of dollar store electrical tape incorrigible asbestos cavities hum cancer anthems dipped in chocolate fluorescent lights dial supplications above bulletin board molting pastel homilies to auto repair diorama sprawled across webster avenue crowing                          ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS                         UNIT STUDY                         EGYPTIAN GODS                         AND PHARAOHS