City Streets at Night

Laid slick with the stink of liquor-licked stomachs,

sallow streets lie steeped in stony sepia,

Belly-up to blazing bursts: fluorescent

cigarettes prick yellow the sickly night sky.

Lank against my last dregs of architecture, I

shuck bright eyes till aged whites fill my husk.

As the carnal colonies crawl my slim stems, I

steep my buds in fairy dust, lace my leaves with snow.

Dark stark pupils, gutted and stuffed, seek skyward

stars where lewd gas lanterns sputter and burn.

--Maggie Cheung

For CCR199Y1: Reading and Writing Poetry, first year seminar course at the University of Toronto.