Fringe Of Shadows!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
living in the shadows, walking the edges of life\u2014
always the fringe,
where neon drowns slow in rain
and names abrade to lint in a pocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I parse the grammar of alleys,
how silence declines,
how a siren pulls distance taut as wire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am the blur between frame and film,
the click before the shutter sins,
a heartbeat cupped like a match in wind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
some nights the city misplaces its face.
I rent it by the minute\u2014
bright for a window\u2019s breadth,
gone at the corner\u2019s mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
if there\u2019s a center, it hoards its weather.
I keep the margins:
small fires, quick exits,
a pencil map that lies kindly\u2014
smudged, forgiving\u2014still pointing me home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I keep a map that doesn\u2019t swear\u2014
just nods.
corners ringed with coffee,
grease-pencil arrows like quiet jobs: try here. maybe there.
a legend of almosts:
one dot for a doorway I almost crossed,
two for a name I almost said,
three for a window where I was briefly light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
some streets changed their spelling;
fine\u2014language drifts like smoke.
what matters is the thumb-warm seam
that opens to the page I need,
the graphite burnish where I\u2019ve traced the run
so many times it\u2019s practically a prayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
if the center\u2019s a rumor, let it keep its weather.
my atlas prefers the ash-gray margins\u2014
soft exits, small fires,
and the mercy of pencil lines,
eraser ghosts pacing behind like patient tails
until\u2014look\u2014here we are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"