So I went out into the nervous system of the air —
Bearing beneath my lettrist overcoat my village
The monumental city long ago breathed in
And held
Went out into the signal and static —
Rivermutter steeplebell and traffic — net of noise
Knotted by sirens
Into the brutal red dream
Of the collective — humming there behind the parade
Of the ideal citizen — in which I took my place
Saint of the negative in my velvet suit
My howlings pressing outward against the million
Other howlings — the deformed din of the 1-AM
So you see the net drawing close — the false escape
Of recollection
How my unhausmannized town
Within a town was myth below the shadows of the new
Towers reaching after the breathlimit —
And there was no way not to be during — architecture
And violence are the natural language of crowds —
