into my soul

for all of those brief dips into your pools

soaking my lips in your martinis

cutting down my heels on your sidewalks

wearing my voice thin among the

murderous notes of your subways.

you pulled me in with invisible reigns

i lived, sweat and tore my skin apart

trying to make you breathe me

through smoke stained fingers and ceilings

through fear and hope

and the slow unraveling of

friends souls

i watched you pull people down around me

and when your towers fell

i

knew

your

power

to destroy.

i am ashamed to reflect on

my damage done on your streets

beneath your sheets

as i looked for love by laying myself down

on someone else's tracks

wanting to be saved and embraced

wanting to be murdered

wanting to fade into the bodies of strangers

you are the city that peeled

the membrane from my child-body

and pulled out this woman

unmasked and arms wide open.

i am floating on your memory now

i can taste your streets on my tongue

and the view from here makes you beautiful.