Oh, Charm City (for Baltimore)

On a cloudless night,
when even constellations hide
behind smoky air

street lights dim;
shiver in a light
that burns gold
in every neighborhood,

from every window,
pain.

We have never met,
but, I love you;
your streets glimmering red,
pale white and blue,

so blue

with all the wrong answers
to questions
swept under proverbial rugs.

Pitter patter of little feet stop;
eyes too innocent to see past the glow;

a lens that brings every flaw into focus;
these imperfections
we cannot seem to cover
with words or glossed over promises
that peel and rust like old dreams.

Only love
can heal wounds too deep to reach
and stitch up a flag of a city;
a country

too spirited
to fall.

~

~

~NaPoMo day 28 (a poem a day in April)