Sleeps That City Never

She moves through me like a ghost
Severe, tight, exact, crystalline
I keep moving so she won't settle in my chest, my wrists, my ankles
I push the pavement down with my heels to keep her from moving up my legs
She seizes me, invites me even
Coaxes me close enough to feel her breath on my eyelashes
I am silent, cauterized by her icy truth
But that second I looked away, she turns on me
As if I was never there
Forever uninvited
And she makes me watch
She makes me watch while she twists her arctic arms around the new ones, the ones who never dared, the ones who knew better
She makes me watch while they are born on my streets
I am the afterbirth, the sticky placenta
No longer the living