Townism

To romanticize properly
One must pretend to forget
Some every day faces
That don't smile back
Not even when the lucid blanket
Creeps it's weave through the stiff branches
Those crackly arms
That just a few months before
Clutched and gathered
Fed and held up straight
Today a thin screen
An algorithmic pattern
A fanned net thrown across the eyes
A brush, a veinous pixelation
A softening texture
In front of eyes
In front of one's own eyes

One must additionally travel far
Just far enough that some other local aspect
Attaches to the belly
Like so many parasites or worms
Believing as all believe
That things are one in the same
Until we -ish them, -ese them
Then there is something to grab on to as well
Like gut to sucker
Maybe gut folding in on
Maybe like a cinnamon roll of doughy snailism
To go so far (as) to get this
You might as well enjoy it

Upon return
Things can get away with not appearing familiar
Which is not a bad thing
When familiar is a haunt
A dive, a stomping ground
A dusty mess
A buffed aluminum classless salt lick
A frigid scrape
But, with some really great lighting -
Which can always go a long way
Just ask Detroit, Pittsburgh, or Minneapolis
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11.18.09