Love in the Dark Alleys

What do you know
Of the stifled laughs and dirty shirts
In the allies that breathe the darkness,
All the night skies squeezed into a ball 
That lay in the pocket of your denims
And tossed into ashtrays of crystal

What do you know 
Of the stained glass rims
And smudged lips
In the cheap hotels 
And unfulfilled one-nights
Of trickling tears and sidelong glances
To the loneliest torn shirts
Drifting off in the wind 
And then consumed into the dark

What do you know
Of the death hanging lowly in the air
and ashes falling off
The tip of your last smoke,
Trailing from where your lie 
In your imagination
With your eyes wide closed
To the end of the dark alley that halts at the door to your home

What do you know
Of the hands waving at you
From windows far ahead
All peaches and dripping in smirks
With beer and rotting vinyl to set the mood
Turning back to the whispers in your head
That now seem to live with you

Is it all you know
Of the streets lined with puddles and fog
Licking the night and whispering 
Sweet nothings in the ears of every passerby
Purring away rhythms that put your conscience to sleep
And scratch the surface of all that lies beneath

It is not that you know
That the alley brims with salt seeds
And cyanide between the teeth
Withering lives 
And loveless nights
Spent on the shores of the eyes and the mind and the soulless little heart
Where you slip the coat off your self
And feel the musty breeze quiet you through this fight

(Art by Fabian Perez)