Brooklyn Monologue

After the movie, the subway to nowhere,
(well, that’s what I call Brooklyn)

you decided to take a bath
with buildings, with jungles,

18th Century dresses, painted toenails,
sponges, hell, even gravel

which would not have been my choice
but then I am not a woman

whose decided water from non-water
and come out ahead somehow

which I have always admired
though I never really tell you what I’m thinking

as I go out to the backyard
to smoke a cigarette,

to clean the lungs so I can breathe
the real nation and its meanness from us.

When you come out wrapped in a towel,
hair wet, smiling eyes,

I melt into the stereo like a song,
spew lava like a Mexican volcano,

the plant you have by the front door
can not understand anything we understand,

you tell me, don’t forget to take out the trash.
The world is too much with us or not enough.