Today I Awoke in Westchester

The boy is not asking for my name & I am just asking for a ride home

The man, I mean

Boy / man / boy / I get them mixed up mostly / lose track / lose sight /

I lost my leather jacket at the bar tonight / I lost my first leather jacket at a different bar / one year ago tonight / so you could say I’m pretty cyclical /

Cyclical girl in a cyclical world doing cyclical things over

& over

& over

& over

&

The man / the boy / the man is not asking for my name / the man is not asking for my name / the man does not know my name / or my age / I think /

They get so angry when they learn it anyway / I’ve never lied about it anyway / I just don’t offer it up anyway / don’t hold it out / a heavy manila envelope / placed open on the bar /

The men do not ask me for my name & I try not to ask them for much either

Try to keep cool & quiet / girl who is cotton-soft / skin so smooth /

The man is not driving me home / he will wait to drive me home until the next day has been cracked open for so long it is nearly dimming again / I do not know this yet / but I can foresee / we are on the freeway now & my clothes have come undone /

They’re falling into the glove compartment / onto the floor / the floor is missing / maybe / maybe we are leaving them behind /

The man is not asking for my name / I am in the man’s car / I am alone in the man’s car / the man does not know my name /

& my clothes are spread out onto the road & all I can think is that I’ve never been so naked on the interstate before / I pray that the other drivers in the other cars cannot see me /

A trail left on the I-87 / a pathway leading everywhere I do not wish to go but my tongue is heavy & my throat is caught / there was a fishing line somewhere / or a line I’d read in a book /

The man does not ask me for my name / instead he scatters my parts all across the city /