UNDERSTUDY [NOIR POETRY 365]

[UNDERSTUDY]

sam tropes spoke in faded

monochrome poster dry

pearls including frequent

remarks about the world 

being the same cold read 

of cyranos and christians 

pining for soppy roxannes

[he had read the classics]

often when it was raining

& it seems to me the page 

back then paused sunken

for the night every night

under smoky wet skies 

. . .