The carnival city,beside the toxic sea
Where once I stood by the water,waiting
On the shore where chemicals from too many iron giants ruin tidepools mixing rainbows of oil
Wanting to feel the burn of the ocean
To be cleansed by white hot
Waves
I wanted to live in the ocean then

It was there, under neon rainbows
I first saw him
He was dark like the city
Unrefined, unkempt, unlike any southern gent
I'd ever met.

He turned into me, around a corner.
I turned into him metaphorically
His teeth sharp under soft full lips
brown eyes to old for his scarred frame

I saw his scars beautiful and serene
Unliike the place he came from
Each one was a battle scar from a war with no winners
Against himself, his soul and body collide
Like the waves
Like the drugs
LIke the beach
like me