The Aubergine Sky

by Damiana Andonova

What light
What calm
Leaked throughout the city
Them at night their bodies
Peaks and valleys of shadows
Caressed by the orange glow of city lights
Parents driving their daughters home
Medical students trying their hand at a sly
Smile
Hitting on slim, flat-chested blondes
Tasteless
Bland
Like their textbooks'
Narrative voice
That they are too busy, too burnt out to notice
Single women ring their budda bowl as they meditate
On mindfulness and chaos
On why they are still alone
Old men walk with canes
As sugar girls plan their summer escape
To Lake Tahoe, Calistoga, anywhere but
Chicago in the winter
Young girls curled between the sheets
Reading books about
Big love
And wonder where to fit it
So big
In an agenda book
So small
So packed right
In her pocket
The aubergine sky all aglow
Sky scrapers splattered with squares of golden light
What delight!
Who can sleep on a night like this?
When cars zoom by
Interrupting
Lazy bliss
When young men lay in bed working on assignments
As their lovers do the same
Their skin mauve
Mauve like the sky
Horse drawn carriages click clacking
To the beat of their fingers' dance
On the keyboard
In the bed