beneath sultry moonlight
she would dance,
her bare feet floating
across a bare cement floor
painted blood-red
in a tiny bedroom
while nearby neighbors
fought or fucked
or mindlessly watched TV
beneath flickering
bare bulbs,
their incessant talk
and incandescent screams
merging symphony-like
into another wasted night.
and bathed in pale moonlight
she could imagine
far-off lands untouched
by squalid city streets
choked with trash
as interminable lines
of auto rickshaws, taxis,
trucks and buses
belched black smoke
just outside her window
no matter the hour,
thick smog obscuring a sea
of broken faces
slowly being swallowed
by the tide.
