Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Hazel

How I dug your party
on this dank pre-winter evening

Such a shame I had to leave

Lou tuned up, plugged-in
Deborah, book poised in her lap

I slipped away
across the restless city
feeding on itself

Picking at a scab

Avoiding drunks dispensing savage bonhomie

How silently they brooded on the morning train

Now these bellicose men
good-naturedly
perform for chattering girls

While the more demure
sit quietly jabbing at our phones

Only four more stops to go

Happy Birthday Hazel
It was good to see you

May the party that surrounds you
never end