Draft 5: Shell

[alonso ramoran]

Shell

Like the nightly train that sounds into the sky
where all the stars have been replaced by one
that tiredly blinks from a radio tower,
the day reverberates through joints and muscles.

And past the sodium-lit street
is a parking lot and supermarket abandoned
to a gathering of shadows that we called night.
When there was only the too-brief sweetness
of bubblegum tape and
watching the world occur from a grocery cart,
there was nothing to remember.

Because today was dislocated
from yesterday and you,
the shopping crowds of us
did not dwindle over time—
it's as if we simply vanished,
as if those balloons that slipped into the clouds
still roam the ether.

But tonight, the moon's face basks in sunlight
with the peace that I'm only reminded of
by a full tank's
                                    clunk

Draft 4: Shell

Like the distant sounding of the nightly train,

the day reverberates through joints and muscles,

into a sky where all the stars

have been replaced with one that blinks tiredly

from a radio tower.



And past the sodium-lit street

is a parking lot and supermarket abandoned

to a gathering of shadows that we called night,

when there was only the transient sweetness

of bubblegum tape and watching the world occur

from a grocery cart with nothing to remember.



Because today was dislocated

from yesterday and you, the shopping crowds of us

did not dwindle---it feels as if we simply vanished

and those balloons that slipped into the sky

still roam the ether.



But tonight, the moon's face basks in sunlight

with the peace that I'm reminded of

by a full tank's

                                 click