i like the way you smile at me

i like the way you smile at me

(for elisa brown)

 

and i am in the november weather

stranger to strangers amid

the gauntlet of noise and traffic

yet your smile is bright

a new coin in the circulated money

a cello against the cacophony of afternoon or

a pool of clear water reflecting a circle of city sky

the epiphany of your face when the confusion grows

is a ripe planet in the universe vacancy

and lost and unclaimed

near the marquee of the theater

in a wind hinting rain in the eyes

i see you

my cells fall into unison

wild breath stirring the exclaiming palms

wilshire blvd.

all its traffic lights green ad infinitum

 

and the city is tall

hurling its height and clamor

metric agressive

accusing and regretting

gathering discarding

elemental and atomic

sometimes crying and contrite

the trees gather in fear

people race the lights that

collapse the country

in precise increments

 

then you smile

the stooping uncertainty stands erect

calloused corners harbor birds

young cats stir in the infancy of their politics 

someone gives something away

somebody is earnest as earth

 

your smile is

three grinning black faces

eager as early stars

framed in the open summer window

something that beautiful to wake to

sunlight and shadow

echos of gospel through verbiage of alabama pine

sunday cadillacs shined to a scream

red rain ditches running along our lives

smooth stones slanting further south

until your heart motors against the morning shine

 

and the city runs in all directions

buildings have hollow sad eyes

tired buses feign politeness

and the hour rotates rooms

each with a separate despair

 

but you smile

friends are gathering cooking singing

a grandmother lifts a wise eye

starts grinning

tells you to “come here, baby…sit”

a strolling someone blesses a

neighborhood with pomegranates

from a rooftop above an alley of roses

after rescuing the evening

a policeman is throwing kisses

a wind moves across the yards

billowing the white linen on the

clotheslines to sail and bloom

mariachis thumb into a ruckus and

disappear beneath their sombreros

the starling rise like a tint on

the mathematics of downtown windows

i am claimed

and i shine