my hometown is a love story

when I look up at the sky in the evening at the right spot in Texas
even skyscrapers blocking out the twilight can't hide your eyes

eyes that sparkle like capitals at night
letters spelled out with irises that
shine like stars in skies that organized themselves alphabetically
and sang me to sleep with country songs under blankets of moonlight

and the personification of your location terrifies me
because you are nighttime for insomniacs
love songs for those of us waiting for the dawn to break you like a heart
watching rays of hope creeping over the horizon
splintering thoughts of you like sunrises kiss the evening to sleep
because I know there is no sunset for you to ride into,
no vindication or happy ending to this country western
set in a state that leaves me so lone-star-struck

your city hides gems like liberals in the I-35 corridor
and your highways are endless roads that my hands will never lightly graze
because you got stuck in deeply personal MoPac traffic jams on the way to my heart
and 6th street meanders like alcoholism
through the arteries of your downtown as a result
I can never understand the grid of one-way synapses in your streets
and I find myself ramming my head up against roadblocks
in an attempt to unlock the way you think

your poetry resides in Ruta Maya's
because the first all nighter where I spilled my soul to you
was writing verses in the floorboards of your coffeehouses
since I could never sleep in a city that I can never finish exploring
and deep down, my heart longs for the southern comfort
in the blue moon pupils that offered me once in a lifetime

but morning wakes up like inevitability
so I will drown your words in vineyards to ferment hope
because my emotional immaturity runs rampant through my veins
so I will drink to every memory of you until the alchemy of my stomach acid
turns my esophagus into a new heart

because every spot where I think of you is the right place in Texas
every time I quit you I end up a half-breath short of salvation
coming after skyscraper high dreams in a city too tired to sleep