Happy Families

 Chasing Apollo across a continent

We arrive at the city in night

Stalagmites glow at the heart

Christmas lights laid out beyond, blinking  it

Dawns on me they are porch lights

Peeping in and out through branches

Suburban home fires warming to the

American dream of couched laughter and 

Candlelit casseroles

Red lights scream along dark ribbons

White light feels anxiously ahead

An itching need to reach those strung out lights

All happy families are alike

warm baths   clean sheets

waltzes in stocking feet

every house the same beat

“How was your day, dear”

two steps right

“Smashing, darling”

one step back

“You look lovely, doll”

left, left

blink, blink, *blush*

up

Up in the sky they are all just playthings

Lights flickering silent in the dark

Too far away to see dirt and grime,

Hear sobbing behind the radio,

See families lonely wreathed with webbed halos.

From here, I can hold the house in my palm

right, right, back

Put my eye up to the window

left, left, up

Before I shake it, and toss it away into the dark.