DC

I am riding your black veins at midnight
Through the deflated artery of bicycle skeletons
And empty PBR boxes.
Barback lovers spilling out under lampposts
and blending into dawn as we coast
the mystery slick road that leads us home.

In the morning, we will find ghost stories
at the bottom of our Mimosas
And decide if it’s a good day for the museums.
But inevitably end up, like we always do,
At the drum circle in Malcolm X
Sunday paper prostrate and never enough
blanket space for all the
people who want to be close to us

These beats beckon in
children and picnicking couples
Acroyogaists and Hula Hoopers
And that one middle aged woman who
wraps a Sari around her belt
and calls herself Africa
Never misses a beat.

My city,
She dances with her heart on fire
She is barista eye candy and local celebrities
Lunch on a government per diem and
dinner on half priced appetizers
She is liberation dance parties and
Connect 4 games over a shot and a Natty Bo
She is more than Barack and Michele.

DC is Busboys on a Sunday or The Fridge on a Tuesday
Or Bloom Bars any day of the week
She is Ben’s Chili Bowl on Inauguration weekend.
The rotating bike lanes and Circulator Route
She is house parties where we forget our day jobs
And day jobs that make us care about living.

Living here feels fleeting enough to want to stay awhile
Enough to feel like someone, some of the time
Feels like everyone is in their 20’s and exceptional
and east coast educated and
all. about. the. journey.

Oh, my beautifully fragmented city
You are the S9 showing up at just the right time
And all those folks who still don’t know where the 43 goes
You are morning runs with the
trash trucks and homeless patio clingers
You are ubiquitous party attendees
and anything I read on BYT

When predictability sets in
You show me that newness can be
uncovered, even at home
That lucky is just the beginning of
what I feel for you, for this.

For the stages I can call home and spokes that get me there
For expanding friends into close-to-heart dwellers
For always having something to celebrate
and someone to do it with

You have made me a solid
You have reshaped my stubborn bends
And made me something worth gifting.

Tonight, I am biking down your moonlight
Grateful for the cool enough weather and
pulsing beat of my tired chest
Reminding me that this is how you
bring oxygen back to my heart.