Mississippi Swells - Nana Grizol

Mississippi swells I know

Ever-drawing line to another time

To the sirens of Chicago

Or Memphis' eerie glow

Not quite cause you’re chosen so

But in drains we draw in to drown

It’s such a small town so your instincts made you go

And you reflect on things you now know

Like how Cindy said «it all seems the same»

Embedded in patterns you don’t notice

The features out of focus

It’s a shame

The flashlight just falls in the direction you’re headed

But you just knew there’s nothing to gain

No measure of light among the sightless, immobilized and righteous

It was pain

So you pointed your beam in the direction of anywhere

And though urbanity was not without its flaws

You found the time and space you’d need to sharpen your claws

And hone your eyesight on the skeletons upon which all your little interactions

carry on

Those that are visible and not

Metaphysical and hot

The anatomy of everything

So when I got to your city, it was summer

It was pretty and we walked around because we had the time

You remarked on all the places that you hadn’t seen in ages

Disconnected from the metro city lines

And on the closed doors of the fire stations

Testament to forced displacement

Shocked me so to see it from the ground

What seemed so functional from great heights looking down

But cities observed from planes

At some point, so deceptively, all start to look the same

You get distracted by the light below the clouds

It seems to shine on through the night, you know

And how it seems so lit up to some line

Feel the brightness so confined

Only skyscrapers shine

The tallest buildings do define

In letters now you wonder

The lights you’re living under

And the vantage points you’ve yet to even come upon

You dream of transportation, infrastructure, the bus stations

On the blocks between the shops the lights flicker on and off and on

And my imagination too travels those streets

Thinking of places and the people that we meet

And conversations with strangers on bus seats

Like you and Arthur on the 28

The 45 fading from sight of the day

Saying «Oh it is magical and cold

The place where cities and starscapes collide»

I think of the people alive and awake on Magnolia’s steep side

The living room lamps and the headlights of cars are like fireflies in the

night sky