Decade Down (Poem)

I wrote this around 4am yesterday morning after driving back to Bronxville from Queens.


Snap snap snap...
My knuckles hang low,
and they crack
in unison.
That only started as I got older.
Minutes pass
and I'm able to recreate the sound
firecrackers
in my bones.
That only started as I got older.

Click, pop...whoosh
I slide into my car
slouch over
and throw my bag in the passenger's seat.
Slam.
And I'm ready to leave.
But not before one last glance
my bag, folded open
I used to have no room for it
up here.

Snap snap snap...
As my fingers clutch
around the wheel.
That only started as I got older.
It's dark outside.
The sky was a shroud
like when you pull a blanket over your head at night:
You can't see it
but it's there
because you can't see anything else.
I press the top edge of my palm
against the wheel
bending my fingers once again.
That only started as I got older.

Pop, whip...smack.
Fuck.
There goes my hubcap.
A lot comes crashing down
in a decade.
And I wonder where it went...
and why.
Click click.
Mother fucker!
I wail under a red light.
Now passing under the Triboro.
Dammit--R.F. Kennedy I mean.

As I peered into my rearview mirror
I spotted two paralyzing pillars,
pumping light into a sea
of hungry clouds.