cafe wha?

lights like beads and chessboards

drunk on cafe wha?

i sit next to pianist

chick corea of keys clack on the bricks

your voice is wood varnish

i will cry again

i can't feel my fingertips

where your symbols break my bones

i'm a candle about to go out

strobe lights and smoke

god i'm so broke

i don't know how to get home

you don't know how to hit a wrong note

keep trying not to be alone

if i stay until the music is over

will i not be alone?

will i not be alone

they keys are yellow and grow trees

please say something to me

the music makes me cry hexagonal glitter

be leather jacket be green shirt

be earth grow out of my boots

leaves and sounds green

a tunnel sound like two subway trains in either direction

of me playing between like

blue! red! yellow! on my page

on your stage

— and dark

every city has their songs

everyone in cafe wha? knows this one

everyone except me

i miss the san francisco songs

maybe that was home

the glitter on the page

like train headlight there

and then it’s not

where do i go?

where do i go

train bright stage lights can't say goodnight

until they finish this set

chess piano keys reset

i’ve got two dollars left

everyone steps onto

the black and white streets to find some rest

and i step? illegally, onto the subway

— August 2021, Cafe Wha? New York, NY