city on my face

there is a stoplight
between every one of my teeth.
i expect to see you in the morning
when the pigeons turn into police.
you will pass me & take a bite
out of my skull. all the balloons
will pour out & make a threat.
there is a camera we can wear
as a necklace. it blinks like
an eye & captures your every move.
i am going to a museum to become
the relic people want to worship.
no one likes a living monument.
i have had purses hung on my tongue.
shouldering through a crowd 
of mimes. here is the wall. here is
the box we're in. if you take 
a black light to my neck
you'd see all the footprints &
not in a sexy way. if you
took a thumb to my lips
you'd become a new street preacher.
the end is coming or else 
it will be laminated & in brochure form.
i define a city as anywhere 
we go to be ravenous. to be thirsty.
there are no where cities & everywhere cities.
that means you are always there
& you are always gone. sometimes
i would, arrogantly worry 
about running into you
as if the ocean doesn't have bigger 
destinies to align. as if the ghosts 
don't have enough chess to play
at the park. a street eats its own legs
& then eats me. my phone rings
& it is not you. it is a rat that
crawls out & onward 
into a hole in the atmosphere.