midtown ballet

Downtown
after darkness,
blanketing other realms
stays at bay, streetlights & neon
beckon
your guts
to wander, search
each block for clues absent
in daylight, but obvious when
bills owed
exceed
accounts received.
Behind glass, mannequins
illuminate your extra pounds,
dead weight
morbid
but curious
and strangely beautiful,
meant to be shared with someone yet
unknown--
Tonight,
intimate, blue
translucent heartbroken
light shines on a city you had
forgot.
Downtown--
to wander, search
behind glass mannequins--
meant to be shared with someone, yet
forgot.

photo by Marian Kent

I'm playing Teacher for the weekend over at Real Toads, and the subject is dear to my poet's heart: the cinquain. Many Toads have taken on this challenge beautifully, please do go and read!

This is my attempt at a garland cinquain--one I haven't pulled off yet, and am not sure I have this time, either. It's five cinquain stanzas, plus a sixth made up of lines from the first five.