Booze and Poetry
The alley cross between 2nd and 4th and settles above Broadway
Smells the way you would expect —
Worn leather beneath damp lace
Colors light bright the way
With inhibition waiting beside every back door
Passing through with the sound of jazz and post-war
Copper and gold over ice and neat
The ladies are trapeze artists
They swing from briefcase to chandelier to
The firestone wet earth begging for discretion
And wrought with blood and bootstraps
Of boys becoming men
And accidental creations taken upside Union
The printers have long gone, but their ink remains
Walking the streets of Nashville before sunrise
Allison Paoli is a published poet living in Nashville, TN.
