Streets of London

For Laurie Bitzkowski

Like the headache of too many draft beers

or eating pizza that has bacteria spreading,

the chemistry has yielded bad returns.

A guitar and the private thoughts in school

notebooks, shoulder-to-shoulder, holding

each other up, missing work the next day.

Pieces on a chess board flee off into

different directions, feeling very alive,

and off in the distance, the sound of sighs.

Even action heroes have to go into a

bathroom, sometimes, just to get away