mona lisa, mona lisa

when the night turns colder but the sky is without clouds the artificial lights, from traffic and streetlamps and open mobile phones and the shops and homes, deepens the clarity of the city. kinda like staring down into the great deep of an enormous body of water. i had that experience most profoundly flying over greenland and witnessed a sea of such clarity that the land sloped beneath the surface to fade out of sight. even sounds snap and each individual noise is in relief among the others so instead of a cacophony of the cityscape you have rather layers of individual sounds. or maybe that could be simply the result of my own flawed perceptions as i triangulate my way thru the city. how i love walking at night. the lights open each structure to invite the walker to look within as the space and its occupants in turn become extensions of the streets.

i saw at the sandwich shop tonight
a large man wearing checkered vans
circa 1981 with tattoos on his forearms
on his right wrist i swear it was the mona lisa
her enigmatic smile