day ONE HUNDRED and TWENTY NINE

corner of 19^th avenue

and 78^th street (brooklyn)

american flags

hang like cheap propaganda

from the big homes of champion philistines

as construction workers

tell tit jokes to the honking cars

in rush hour traffic

under the threat of rain

the spring sky smells like

smog and a vegetal death

as an obese pigeon shits

impressively on my shoulder and chin

all for good luck

i’ll later be told.

--John Grochalski