ROPE STRUNG TIGHT

ROPE STRUNG TIGHT
by Allen Killian-Moore

two sheets to the wind
crawling through liquid heat
near an abandoned lot
on cedar avenue

the refinery explodes
with metal vats on fire
as night’s hidden pleasures
call out in the humid
summer air

sirens wail
like banshees
on the make
while loretta walks
a rope strung tight
between friends
and strangers

as the big-top
jumble of life
crackles with
fortune tellers
sooth sayers
and well wishers
standing below her

letting out with
taunts and schemes
dredged up from
the vaults of a
huckster’s forked
and wicked tongue

while her mind
is wrapped
in lightning
striking on
another plane

and though
she is neither
contemptuous
nor dismissive
of the potent
masses below

loretta hears little
but the roar of rockets
in the gaslight evening
as stars sing her secrets
to the moon