On women (at night); Manhattan, KS

Sometimes, anywhere, in transitory shadows which linger,
certain secrecies will form between a man and woman.
If you remain within these alleys with certain women,
life sometimes will remain, and it can not suffer, nor die.

Nor should it ever die in this remarkable age and town.

(every city is chaos in twilight, dark and touching;
remember the yellow and orange lights which invade night,
like angels speeding to enter the once and mythic hell,
the night which will forever and always keeps its first rule:
that all lovers will awaken and swoon.
-this is just a city, one that remembers.
forgive its endless turns and its endless round-abouts.)

We should do a very small justice to remember
its lovers, against lamp-posts, in cracks and in dimness,
eternally against black alley walls in forever white,
rubbing sex against the miniature wealthy,
in their white sophisticated collars. Or,
the dirty and remarkably strong hands, which,
more than often reach, reaching. . .
(poor servitude and poor belief should never forget.)
to forget the shuffling footsteps of commonality,
the shrugging shoulders of our spirituality,
the proud mysteries of our delicate and forgotten merchants.