Retreat

By Mary Animaux

I caved to
To my 3AM impulse
And flattened my belly
Into 10th street
Propped up my chin
On the smooth and reflective
Yellow line
Comforted,
My fingers in the deep cracks
Of the asphalt.
This is my church sometimes
This is my most sacred only holy
Existing in the drips
All melodramatic
And secret
And embarrassingly self aware
At least enough
To know rolling around in the street leads to
Glass in the hair
But startled skittish
When beady eyes and hunkered spine
Crawled out of the drain
Those tiny hands
I was up and running
Faster than headlights
Living is ridiculous
Cars alarming
Raccoons the worst.