Sick Day Home, Chicago
Across the street (Chills)—
A criminal rolls off the wet
Blanket he has pledged himself
To until the memory runs out. In
The commotion of spent breaths
He chooses to proclaim: “Radiator
Heat is the most reliable heat.”
In the Loop (Muscle Aches)—
A wannabe angel paces greedily
Under a clearly dubious sense of
Displacement, bumps into a criminal
Who exits an alleyway; a criminal
Who has his whole life staked out
A detached pursuit of choice.
Somehow within (Nausea)—
I stand flesh-peculiar behind the sweaty
Disguise of a picture window, and I
Instruct criminality to score peril,
To seek back its burdened blush from
Bone, to disconnect for the slanted
Sentiment of a wet snowstorm.
John Hospodka is the author of South Side Trilogy www.bohemianpupil.com
