Water Towers

Back apart from all the benches
on the outer rim of parking lots
where buses all stack up
to ferry patrons back and forth
to what they’re paying for.
Ferris wheels are only real at night
because the day time makes them
nothing but machine since you can
see the gears all spinning not just
the flickering of decorations
everywhere.

Wipe the fog off all the windows on the inside
so the street can be crossed covering
the distance between one town and the next.
The inconsistent water towers have never
symbolized distinctions in between them
because they’re all the same no matter
how they hide it.

Pour the liquor out of the plastic bottle
in the paper bag and send the letter
backward in the week until it’s Monday
and the only way to end it is by tearing up
the calendar for everyone.
It turns out the tennis match between
what’s trying to be born and what can last
is never done. It just resets like how
the clocks do when the power fades
and everything is quiet.