monsters in the city

and the streetlights

are out.

we felt the noise around

each corner, begging us

to find it; the walls

were made of braille

and the bricks made

signposts in broken

arrows; the mortar

weak with names

written with bullets.

even the rooftops left us vulnerable.

a message written

in morse code, paint

on our hands where

we told our story.

we never found the way out.