link tails with me by the florescent billboards
on the reef-- my poetry was neon
in the brain coral

i was looking for someone to hold
seahorse tails with me-- 
someone to
entangle with so i don't get 
caught in the current of another stop
light-- anchor me to the sun 
poised in another billboard--
sell me Cola-Cola-- break off
chunks of staghorn while you try 
to hold yourself steady-- 
this is when you learn the 
coral has blood-- not like
your or mine-- but it breathes
like the walls of skyscraper at
night-- mouth full of humans--
do you ever dream about humans cities?
i'd like to travel to new york
if i could keep holding onto
your tail--
i imagine you'd take me ice skating--
encircle me--
toss the skates over a telephone
wire to claim this street
make courtship of a night moon--
drape the skates over a telephone wire--
the curb oscillates like a sea pea
& you tell me 
you read about M & Ms 
from past the neon follicles 
of the anemone-- drop coins to
the clowns in white-orange 
on the corner--
hold onto me hold onto me lover--
the reef is a car horn--
a preened magazine next
to us on the subway--
what do humans eat other than color?
i have heard so much about
central park-- you'll have to take
me there-- 
i ve heard they grow coral the
size of billboards--
roots crack asphalt crack trenches
crack abyss
crack giant squid nightmare
where you let go of my tail
& i fall victim to 
a newspaper-- wrapped
in headline or headlight
or whatever else we make of this city--
lover-- god gave us tails 
so we could pretend there was something
to hold onto--
tie each other to a stop light--
read the billboards to me like
poetry-- advertise to me baby--
i want to buy love like a 
Twizzler-- drink in the curves of
your neck like the popped tab
of a can of Sprite--
in the city the water tastes 
like carbonated sugar--
how did you sleep before you 
found me?
i didn't
it's more to do with the coral bleeding
than it has to do with all the lights--
you get used to the lights--
i'm pulling lights from 
the pool cues of your eyes--
i'd mistake you for a eight ball--
if we had teeth we could
crack the blue candy coral
Caulastrea clusters into high rise--
into pillar coral scraping
scraping
scraping
the drift of stars--
the star fish rest next to 
heating vents in sleeping bags
--swaddled in beach towel--
we cannot sleep yet-- we've
yet to read each other's names--
bold & blinking & capitalist
imprinted in the scalp
of the brain coral-- the 
cacophony of tinsel song & light--
this is the time draws itself
into a square for
us to hold each other in--
how do the humans stand a city?