Slow anguish filters dustily
through cracks in the pavement above

and staticky words dive under the wheels
in an act of weary irritation,

and you are leaning back in resignation
while the cigarette curled in one hand

goes on breathing, the idle corner
of an unnamable beast dozing in the dust

that rises like a desert and drifts to never:
the guileless list of how we came to this

minute by minute forgetting.