Neon Chalk

An Insidious Comic

The city has become too loud--
a trek of words streaming across a building,
bubbling in neon over brick and mortar
amidst a medley of horns,
hardly comprehensible.
Symbols and unattached sentences
tint through night and day
On the road, and subway rails in a great grey rush,
of Les Miserables, Phantoms, and Operas.

On the outskirts too,
roads sucked dry by time and sun,
more somber and chaotic--
walls missing roofs sit camouflaged behind a crop of graffiti,
weathered signs, and colored chalk on sidewalks.
Every wrapped and hooded head is the Joker's minion.

There are stories told in the scroll of boarded up buildings,
among flashing shutters of yellow tape, and brownstone;
the bus strolls by like a slow motion bullet
past a figure by a doorway;
she screams like an empty yellow
speech balloon; a timeless echo
shouting over curbs--
how she lies among skipping feet and hopscotch.