By Nicholas Christopher
The girl on the rooftop stares out
over the city and grips a cold revolver.
Laundry flaps around her in the hot night.
Each streetlight haloes a sinister act.
People are trapped in their beds, dreaming of
the A-bomb and hatching get-rich-quick schemes.
Pickpockets and grifters prowl the streets.
Hit-men stalk informers and crooked cops hide in churches.
Are there no more picket fences and tea parties
in America? Does no one have a birthday anymore?
Even the ballgames are fixed, and the quiz shows.
Airplanes full of widows circle the skyline.
Young couples elope in stolen cars.
All the prostitutes were wronged terribly in childhood.
They wear polka dot skirts, black gloves, and trenchcoats.
Men strut around in boxy suits, fedoras, and palm-tree ties.
They jam into nightclubs or brawl in hotel rooms
while saxophone music drowns out their cries.
The girl in the shadows drops the revolver
and pushes through the laundry to the edge of the roof.
Her eyes are glassy, her hair blows wild.
She looks down at her lover sprawled on the sidewalk
and she screams.
A crowd gathers in a pool of neon.
It starts to rain.
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Another quickie as I spent this very rainy Saturday being an absolute slug with Paul and Cheryl -- first we slept through most of the royal wedding coverage though we caught the end of it, then we watched The Road to El Dorado (partly because of things like this), then we had lunch while watching the reboot of Vacation (which is pretty terrible and sexist -- we were only watching for Chris Hemsworth, though I think the best scene is the Four Corners police battle -- and has a couple of nice cameos).
Then I dragged everyone out for half an hour for Pokemon Community Day to look for shiny Charmander before came in from the rain to watch Blackhat (yeah that was 100% for Chris Hemsworth), and then we ordered pizza while watching my brand-new Blu-Ray of Black Panther. After Cheryl had to go home, we caught up on the season finale of Agents of SHIELD, which was surprisingly moving given how many times I almost stopped watching the show out of boredom or annoyance before this season.
Since I took no photos today, here are some of the New York Aquarium's seals and sea otters in the rain from last fall:
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