Sanctuary Stairs

I gather her head up in my sweater and we crouch here some dried ketchup where her lip turns down a light crust of dirt on one eyebrow the concrete stained and worn surprise rain splattered in the gap between here and the parking lot our socks are wet our feet itch then her cough started it’s going to be ok we can hide her for a minute her damp head soaks the wool the corners reek of urine we do a sober trick my body now a cradle her hair touches my wrist she trembles down to her cavity a cough we love the careless future emerges from it shaking like a star bracelet with elastic in this other country the contradictory music of our tears what do wandering souls find to live in here what warm skin in this stairwell the air is cold the earth moves one bug survives beyond their law three of us hunched up like a heaps of wet wool in the leaky crook of a stair you heard about us somewhere