I
Night
Castaways
Cast asides
When night falls they sleep in doorways
lay in alleys
bleed old blood under a crazy moon
they scream,
fight,
stab,
rob,
steal,
beg,
they call out names:
mother,
father,
sister,
old lovers, new lawyers,
they plead with cops
run from their sins, their crimes, their long pasts

When night falls, so do they
When morning rises, they live behind a crazy moon

II
Shoreline
I am a road noir
Alone I drive at night
An old Rambler rumbles,
one light burned, the other lit dimly
Things my eyes see, my skin feels:
the gutted gas stations;
the dead inside diners;
the vacant motels;
those roadside cat houses with flesh eaten whores, hurt of body and soul
At day's light I'll touch a bleary coast,
So my hope rises to a life anew
but black oil turns to black smoke
my engine moves slower to a deathly stop
The radio on plays an old preacher's song:
God to the Rambling One. Like Moses to the Promised Land you'll never see.