Karina

What highway?
what highway's old signs?
the road trip drag
the disguise
falling sun ushers in the desert night
what design can I trust when I'm cold
when I can't be taught
to keep to myself keep to my mind
manage the pastures others leave behind
the build up
the song that plays over and over
my sister says the cloister bells ring in two-step time
who am I to smoke her last cigarette
the deluge delagate
she lived through bombs and lies
a mistress now
a babe back in 1969

she taught me smack
about smack
and about fire
she was a hurricane of desire
cymbals crashed when she cried
I was on my knees in an alley with a needle in my arm
when she died
a lonely trombone ceased playing somewhere
in the lonely night
in one minute Karina was a mountain of rhythmic pulsing glowing light
in the next
flat-line

she held a nation captive
while they etched her face into a ten cent dime
a tempest coke whore sure she was
but she had a smile for all mankind
her skin was marked with splashes of blue bruises
and fingerprints
but Karina
Karina was all mine.

TA