P. Sohar
Sleepless in the Old City
Someone smashes the window and
the refrigerator has a coughing fit for
two more minutes while I make my peace
with the clock radio, it's ten past two,
in a city bombed out by the night; I sleep with
the rubble under me chewing into my hip
and a black cat looking for something to eat
around my nose.
No one else around, not even rats.
Then, the front door of a tenement house
that has always been off its hinges
suddenly slams shut.
The bang wakes me up just in time
to hear the casement getting smashed down,
but then, instead of stealthy steps,
I hear nothing but the refrigerator.
I get up, put on a leather coat and boots.
Outside, across the street, I can see the locked-up
tenement, the front door shut as if it had never been off
its hinges. I walk over to take a leak
but there's someone sleeping on the steps.
Or else it's a garbage bag,
still awake,
maybe still alive.
the refrigerator has a coughing fit for
two more minutes while I make my peace
with the clock radio, it's ten past two,
in a city bombed out by the night; I sleep with
the rubble under me chewing into my hip
and a black cat looking for something to eat
around my nose.
No one else around, not even rats.
Then, the front door of a tenement house
that has always been off its hinges
suddenly slams shut.
The bang wakes me up just in time
to hear the casement getting smashed down,
but then, instead of stealthy steps,
I hear nothing but the refrigerator.
I get up, put on a leather coat and boots.
Outside, across the street, I can see the locked-up
tenement, the front door shut as if it had never been off
its hinges. I walk over to take a leak
but there's someone sleeping on the steps.
Or else it's a garbage bag,
still awake,
maybe still alive.
Page(s) 27
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