Blinding lights

City lights across my vision

when my thoughts drift into mourning

the felled orchards and the soil

cleared of life for dwarfing wheat.

But the city colours splash,

bright and blinding, blue electric,

to my senses sugar rush,

and I’m easily distracted,

and I leave reason behind.

See the beauty in the small things?

Cotton candy, plastic bottles

filled with Coke® and teenage laugh?

Painted glass in hues of cherry,

prickly pear taste on my tongue

from a lolly, aromatic,

benzophenone sickly sweet,

and I lose my thoughts of sorrow

in this dazzle loud and hollow.

Should I pine for ice that’s melting

when there’s lust in August nights,

love reflected in the sequin

sparkle of the city lights?

My head numb, senses sedated,

I don’t miss the touch of willow

as I get high on cough syrup

undernotes in your perfume;

poison, medicine, sweetly stringent,

will escort me through the rush

of anxiety at noon.

Will there be a time for grieving

when days reel in high-strung buzz,

reason muted in the fervor

flashing in electric lights?

PAC-MAN™ music re-pe-ti-tive

paycheck, pay bills, pay attention

to the joy in the mundane,

like the schoolgirls holding hands

or Madonna on TV,

popcorn popping, candy crushing,

eighties neon in my head,

and I’m dumb for the aroma

of your lip gloss on my neck,

easy beauty swirling, dancing —

quintessential alibi

for not minding melting ice caps

or the penguins who die.