85: Night Surrender
85: Night Surrender
Night Surrender
by Leila Ortiz
Read the automated transcript.
All of us on a stoop.
Late, too late
to be out. We like to squat
in black and blue
night. We are owls
with pocket-knives.
Stoop summer of
Uncertainty. Colt 45
Tastes like rain
and bone. This girl Myca
left alone by parents
off vacationing. The Beastie
Boys whine, the girlie
Was def and she wanted to go,
but we stay till night
expires. Taking dares
and setting them on fire.
This couple walks by
probably coming
from a party. They laugh
at something not funny.
We must look like kids
because the man smiles
and asks if we smell pancakes,
making our anger
pop. Jonah
follows them up the block.
All I hear is the woman
Saying stop, stop.
“Night Surrender” by Leila Ortiz. Copyright © 2019 by Leila Ortiz. Used by permission of the poet.