if you asked me where I was,
stopped me on a street corner,
I would blink my big owleyes as if I just woke up,
not be able to answer fast enough,
you’d be surprised to learn,
I’m local.

you can live anywhere
as long as its not in your body.
even Philadelphia, even
Kensington, the first neighborhood
I arrived to.

I tattooed her name
on my arm to never
forget where I came from;
the city that  unsheathed
me to beat me with it’s
black ice and corners.
she turns to me again and
says, I implore you,
for me,

do you like
warnings or do
you like to drown?
and feeling myself a
smirking fox,
traipse the town in
pink chiffon, I spit on the
floor and I say:
I don’t know

why don’t you just
fucking surprise
me?

“Lilith”

I begin to grow,
unfurl, hum
softly.

5.