Wind from the great lake funnels Through the alleys of this strange And brutal city, that was just released from an icy straitjacket.

You, a convict from a prison ship, Are stranded here like a sea anemone, Which will eventually become rock,

Which is chained to this heart, a dynamite cap Waiting for its fuse to be lit, to explode Your body’s caverns veined with emotion.

Footsteps follow behind you. A few paces away a body sluices through The hole you left behind in the night.

At those high windows, invisible to you Since you have been denied ascension, she stands, An insomniac, awaiting morning light, the arrival of birds, and of beloveds.