Patti Smith on the Sidewalk

Rachelle Annechino

 
Something catches my eye, gold
glitter disco platform sneakers with vinyl stripes.
I look up
through bleared mascara
at toughskins pooled around childish ankles
a tank top, narrow shoulders.
It was as though someone had spread butter on all the fine
points of the stars.*
That lined face
those sea-washed features.
My God, who’d think she would wear gold shoes?
Blanched eyes
straggly hair veined silver.

She is watching what lives
between sidewalk cracks.
Imagines skyscrapers wavering under their own weight
funneling, at last,
down subway grates.
The whole city slips away at her feet.
Gold,
a small sun glittering.
 

* from the album Horses