street fair

philadelphia, 2011      
   
   
   my back against your body    
   in the chaotic crowd    
      
   when you touched my fingers    
   you interlaced them slowly  
   near my hip, in secret    
   the gentian dusk coming on    
   neon necklaces starting to burn, the ferris wheel    
   spinning left, the great chiming musicbox    
   rising by crane before us, men with painted faces    
   pushing past- brandishing brandy bottles and breathing fire-    
      kids gathering on the roof    
   of the glass restaurant, Wilma Theater,    
   granite apartment tops & high floors of    
   the Broad Street parking garage    
    sparklers set off strangers laughing like friends-    
     
   when you touched them,    
   the whole lit city swept over my head    
   like thick ocean / i didn’t know    
   i’d stood on the shore for so long.