N.W. Hall

AN AFTERTHOUGHT IN AN UNREAD HISTORY

"oh god it's wonderful
to get out of bed
and drink too much coffee
and smoke too many cigarettes"
     -O'Hara

To be an afterthought in
an unread history book is

a good goal for this city. Nevermind
the apartments full of sorrowful liquor cups.

Every citizen is pale and crumpled up.
Trashcans sag like defeated boxers.

Flies seem unamused by their hollow
win over the dumpsters. Theaters stopped

producing new films because nothing
stopped the dreaded feeling audiences

got when they walked back out to the
street. A feeling that being poorer is
common when pictures are enough.

Everything here goes
the way of a cigarette
wishing for another
way to be than lit.

The first step
in sinking a ship
is putting it out to sea.

The only way
to wreck a car
is to drive it.

Anyone who has tried
knows a city must be
made to be razed.

This one looks finished.

N.W. Hall likes to make poems too.