Walk

Lean in to slap
gnarled bark.

Palm scrapes
trees' solidity.

Bumblebees drift
cloud-slow.

How loud this town
has grown

with what's not worth saying.
Deafening shades of red,

blinding white chrome.
Hands fold in prayer

_____or are withdrawn --

malediction.  All
focus on a home

unaffordable
to those who were born before

cranes raised a roof
over her.

Domes and minarets
whip by.  I bow

my head at a window
past which folklore sped.

Dread dressed us in Nessus robes.
______Gifts none would ever ask for;

a voice could lift
bodies sore

bodies used
by thieves accused -- 

_____accused yet never tried.

Who are we to dye
bolts in vats and chat about the latest score?

Do not ask to be told
what's in store.