poetry: [strangers in a starless city] by Amy Suto

let’s play a game of ‘who cares less’

howls the city

purporting transactions of flesh instead of hearts

I’ve played that game, I know how it ends

in a city of strangers, a bar we all tend

sipping fingers of ‘DGAF’ and pulls of ‘chill’

let’s play a game of ‘how fast can you extinguish your passion?’

how completely you can turn your thoughts off

adrenaline pumping, dry throat-quenching

I can play, I can win

I can meet you at the plate

batter up, I can knock this unfeeling out the park

‘method writer’ code for I’ll try anything once

but damn me twice

sentence me to expatriation thrice

this city of angels brings out the demons in the best of us

we may be strangers in a starless city

but that’s only because we turn away

from the bright lights inside all of us

...

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